DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 


DIVINITY  SCHOOL 
LIBRARY 


->!^*%i=S^ 


i^iVi'tiuT 


Qalesville.  wis-----'' 


? 


1 


1 


^iiXiiUR    F.     QIERE, 

^alesville.  Wisconsin 


"THE  TIME  OF  THE  END: 


}f 


A  PROPHETIC  PERIOD, 

DEVELOPING,  AS  PREDICTED, 

AN  INCREASE  OF  KNOWLEDGE 

BESPECTINO 

C()C  gropljcrifs  anJr  |)friflijs  tliat  foretell  tijc  €r(t: 

ILLUSTRATED 

BY  THE  HISTORY  OF  PROPHETIC  INTERPRETATION",  THE  EXPECT- 
ATION OF  THE  CHURCH,  AND  THE  VARIOUS  COMPUTATIONS 
OF  THE  TIMES  OF  DANIEL  AND  JOHN,  BY  COMMENTA- 
TORS,   WHO    (JENEKALLY   TERMINATE   THEM 
BETWEEN  A.  D.  1830  AND  1880. 

ALSO  , 

"OUR  PRESENT  POSITION  IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR," 

WITH  HIS  "  APOCALYPTIC  SEVEN-SEALED  SCROLL," 
BY  THE  KEV.  E.  B.  ELLIOTT,  A.  M. ; 

LECT[JRES  OX  THE  NATURE  AND  NEARNESS  OF  THE  ADVENT, 

BY  THE  REV.  JOHN  CUMMLNG,  D.D.; 

LECTURES  ON  THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  NEW  EARTH, 

BY  DE.  CHALMEnS,  DE.  HITCIICOCK,  AND  JOHN  WESLEY; 
AND 

THE  TESTIMONY  OF  MORE  THAN  ^-^7^ 

ONE   HUNDllED  WITNESSES  ^ — 

AGAINST  THK  MODERN  WllITBYAN  THEORY 
OF  A  MILLENNIUM  BEFORE  THE  ADVENT. 

BY  A  CONGREGATIONALIST. 

1  to  th«  Time  of  tbe  Eod  :  xo&nj  ihkll  nia  to  and  fro,  and  Ed 

BOSTON: 

PL^LTSIIED  BY  JOHN  P.  JEWETT  AND   CO^IPANY. 

CLEVELAND,  0.:  JEWETT,  PROCTOR  &  WORTHINGTON, 

NEW  TOKK:   SHELDON,  LA51P0RT   &   BLAKEMAN. 

LONDON :  TRUliXKH  i.  CO. 

18  5G. 


Kntered  acconling  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855,  by 

JOHN     P.    JKWETT    ii    CO., 

In  the  Clerk'3  OUice  of  tlie  Liistrict  Couit  for  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


^51 

GALE  COLLEGE  LfBRARY 


CAMBRIDGE: 
AILEN    AND    FARMIAM,   PKINTEKS. 


Stereotyped  by 

HOUART   k   ROBBINS, 

New  England  Tvpe  and  Stereotype  Fouodcrj, 

BOSTON. 


Div.  S. 


GALE  COLLESE  ,. 

PREFACE 


The  cause  of  truth,  doubtless,  has  often  been  greatly  injured 
by  much  that  has  been  written  on  the  subject  of  prophecy.  And 
the  confidence  of  many  in  the  possibility  of  any  correct  inter- 
pretation has  been  greatly  weakened  by  the  failure  of  desig- 
nated times,  —  sometimes  based  on  fanciful  conjectures,  or  dog- 
matically maintained  and  ill-advised  speculations,  which  have 
only  served  to  bring  the  study  of  prophecy  into  disrepute. 

The  design  of  this  volume  is  not  to  bestow  censure  on  the 
well-meant  endeavors  of  mistaken  expositors  ;  but  it  is  to  awaken 
new  interest  in  the  predictions  of  the  future,  respecting  which 
there  exists  in  the  church  a  remarkable  and  alarming  indiflfer- 
ence,  that  is  hardly  reconcilable  with  the  love  for  Christ's  return 
which  the  Scriptures  inculcate.  If  the  position  here  maintained 
be  correct,  —  viz.,  that  "  the  Time  of  the  End"  is  a  period  to  pre- 
cede the  end,  during  which  prophecies  previously  obscure  or 
misinterpreted  were  to  be  unsealed  for  the  edification  of  the 
church,  the  knowledge  of  which,  respecting  the  close  of  the 
present  and  the  ushering  in  of  a  new  dispensation,  was  to  be 
gradually  but  surely  increased,  —  then  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  we  are  within  this  predicted  period  ;  and  hence  the  import- 
ance of  awakening  the  church  to  a  realizing  sense  of  her  true 
position,  which  should  be  like  that  of  a  bride  awaiting  the 
return  of  her  absent  but  soon-expected  spouse. 


418459 


IV  PREFACE. 

In  aid  of  this  object,  there  is  here  given  a  condensed  view  of 
the  history  of  prophetic  interpretation,  the  erroneous  expecta- 
tions which  have  prevailed,  the  various  computations  of  the  pro- 
phetic periods  which  have  attracted  the  attention  of  any  consid- 
erable portion  of  the  church,  and  valuable  selections  from  the 
writings  of  divines,  and  others,  whose  opinions  are  worthy  of 
consideration.  There  is  thus  presented,  in  a  small  compass,  a 
condensed  view  of  the  light  which  has  been  shed  on  the  subject 
of  unfulfilled  prophecy,  which  shows  that  we  are  surely  nearing 
the  port  of  earth's  destiny. 

It  is  a  significant  fact,  that  all  the  computations  of  prophetic 
times,  by  the  several  commentators,  terminate  within  a  compara- 
tively limited  period.  While  no  man  should  dogmatize  on  a 
subject  of  human  speculation,  if  it  be  admitted  that  the  periods 
teach  anything,  this  near  agreement  must  show  that  we  are  in 
the  neighborhood  of  their  end.  On  this  point,  the  chapter  from 
Mr.  Elliott  on  "  Our  Present  Position  in  the  Prophetic  Calendar," 
and  the  views  of  Dr.  Gumming,  may  be  read  with  great  profit. 
Respecting  the  events  which  are  then  to  transpire,  the  testimony 
of  more  than  one  hundred  witnesses,  many  of  whom  are  honored 
as  the  fathers  of  the  church,  shows  that  her  voice  has  been 
anything  but  uniform  in  support  of  the  dreams' of  victory  and 
ease,  during  her  Lord's  absence,  with  which  she  is  now  solacing 
herself,  instead  of  with  the  hope  of  her  Lord's  return.  And  the 
arguments  advanced  by  Drs.  Chalmers  and  Hitchcock,  and  by 
the  celebrated  Wesley,  in  evidence  of  the  renewal  of  this  mate- 
rial earth,  and  the  prominent  place  which  it  has  ever  had  in  the 
faith  of  the  church  as  the  home  of  the  redeemed,  entitle  this 
subject  to  the  candid  and  serious  examination  of  all  lovers  of 
truth. 

BosToiT,  Sept.  1855. 


INDEX. 


Paje. 
Abstract  of  Dr.  CumminR's  Lectures,  .  195 
Age  of  the  World,  by  Cbronologcrs, .  .    155 

Alleine,  Joseph, 321 

Anabaptists, 40 

Anderson,  Rev.  William, 348 

Apocalypse,  an  Unveiling  of  Prophecy,  21 
Apocalypse,  a  Key  to  Daniel,   ....      47 

Aretius,  of  Berne, 65 

Auriol,  llcv.  Kdward, 362 

Bale,  Bishop  John,  of  Ossory,  Ireland,    38 

Baxter,  llicliard, 319 

Bengal,  James  Albert, 49 

Benson,  George,  D.D., 325 

Bickersteth,  Kev.  Edward,   ....  77, 368 

Birks,  Kev.  T.  R., 366 

Bonar,  Rev.  Andrew, 352 

Bonar,  Rev.  Iloratius,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  .    350 

Bonar,  Rev.   James, 350 

Bradford,  John, 306 

Brock,  Rev.  Muurant, 371 

Brooks,  Rev.  J.  W., 298,  365 

Bryant,  Rev.  Alfred, 67,  3S8 

Bunyan,  John, 338 

Burnet,  Thomas,  D.D., 310 

Burroughs,  Jeremiah,  D.D., 315 

Bush,  I'rof.  George, 4t5 

Butler,  Bishop  Joseph, 312 

Calvin,  John, 300,  304 

Candlish,  Rev.  Robert  S., 348 

Carlton,  Rev.  Hiram, 393 

Cause  of  Supposing  the  End  Near,  .  .  8 
Chalmers,  Rev.  Thos.,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  251,  347 
Charles,  Landgrave  of  Ilesse,    ....    381 

Charnock,  Stephen,  D.D., 323 

Christian  Fathers  all  Millen.-irians,  .  27 
Christ's  Advent  I're-millennial,  .  .  .  161 
Chronology,  Tabular  Schemes  of,  .  .  .  113 
Church,  no  Expectation  came  to  Crisis,      29 

"      it  became  A))ostate, 29 

Chyrtrasus,  Rev.  David,  D.D.,  ....  65 
Cogswell,  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  ....      66 

Coke,  Rev.  Thomas,  LL.D., 345 

Coming  Events  Revealed, 8 

Cox,  Rev.  John 341 

Cranmer,  Archbishop  Thomas,  .  .  .  .  307 
Crisis,  Expectation  of  one  Impending,  .  7 
Cumming,  Rev.  John,  D.D.,  ....  70, 159 
Cuninghame,  William, 59,374 

Dallas,  Rev.  Alexander, 3G7 

Dalton,  Rev.  W., 365 

Davenant,  Bishop  John,  D.D.,  ....  309 

Davenport,  Rev.  John, 329 

Decline  of  .Millenarian  Views,    ....  28 

Destiny  of  the  Earth, 272 

1* 


44P459 


Diagram  of  Prophetic  Periods,  ....  116 

Discoveries  Providentially  Revealed,  .  39 

Duffield,  Rev.  George,  D.D., 387 

Duraut,  John, 317 

Eliot,  Rev.  John, 330 

Elliott,  Rev.  E.  B., 77 

"     the  Concluding  Chapter  of  his 

Uora;  Apoctalyptica,     ...  89 

Epoch  of  the  Reformation, 33 

"        "    A.  D.  1836, 48 

"        "        "      1843, 4, 56 

"        "        "      1847 69 

"        »        "      1864—6, 65 

"        "         "      1868, 77 

"        "        "     1S73, 79 

"        "        "      1880, 80 

Expectation  in  the  Tenth  Century,  .   .  31 

Falter,  Rev.  George  Stanley, 68 

Fairbairn,  Rev.  Patrick,   ....   353,  399 

Fifth  Jlonarchy  Men, 40 

First  Prophetic  Discovery  of  Luther,  .  34 

Fletcher,  Rev.  John, 344 

Fox,  Rev.  II.  W., 395 

Fox,  the  Martyrologist, 65 

Freemantle,  Rev.  R.  W., 367 

Future  Destiny  of  the  Earth,  ....  272 

Gale,  Theophilus, 310 

George,  Duke  of  Manchester,  ....  373 

Gilfillan,  Rev.  George, 353 

Gill,  Rev.  John,  D.D., 339 

Gootlhart,  Rev.  C.  J., 364 

Goodwin,  Thomas,  D.D., 310 

Gregory  of  Oxford, 25 

Griffin,  Rev.  Edward,  D.D., 286 

Grosse,  A. 317 

Ilabershon,  Rev.  Matthew,   ....  59, 375 

Hales,  Rev.  William,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  .    .  80 

Half-Centurv  of  Expectation,    ....  48 

Hall,  Rev.  Robert, 341 

Hamilton,  Rev.  James,  D.D.,   ....  356 
Henshaw,  Rt.  Kev.  John  P.,     .    .    295,  384 

Henry,  Matthew, 324 

Herschcl,  Rev.  Ridley  n., 381 

Hewitson,  Rev.  W.  H., 348 

Hill,  Rev.  Thomas, 36S 

Hitchcock,  Rev.  Edward,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  272 

Hoare,  Rev.  E., 370 

Hooper,  Rev.  John, 373 

Hopkins,  Rt.  Rev.  John  H., 384 

Howe,  John,  ..  .   .'  .  ^ 324 

Imbrie^v.  Oliajfts  ».,'  ;  7  v  <  .   .  387 

Israel,  the  Hoiife  of, .  39» 

yGAl^i'  GOLL'E--' 


VI 


INDEX. 


Janeway,  James, 323 

Knapp, 2S4 

Knox, 303. 

Latimer,  Bishop  Hugh, 37, 305 

Lord,  Rev.  Nathan,  D.D., 388 

Lord,  Rev.  Jolin  King, 390 

Lord,  David  N., 393 

Lord,  Eleazer, 394 

Lowrie,  Rev.  Walter, 395 

Lutlier,  Martiu, 34,  37,  301 

Macdonald,  Rev.  R., 349 

Maitland,  Rev.  CD., 357 

Mather,  Rev.  Cotton,  D.D., 333 

Jtatlier,  Rev.  Increase, 332 

Matlier,  Rev.  Samuel, 331 

Maton,  Robert, 309 

Mcllvaine,  Rt.  Rev.  C.  P., 384 

McNeile,   Rev.  Hugh,  D.D.,  .    .    .   35S,  398 

Mede,  Joseph,  D.U., 25,  309 

Melancthon,  Philip, 35,  303 

Menasse, 25 

Midnight  Cry, 45 

Millenarians  Expelled  by  the  Papists,     30 

Miller,  Hugh, 374 

Miller,  William, 57, 386 

Misapprehensions   Corrected,   ....      19 

Nearness  of  the  End, 34, 245 

Newcorae,  Archbishop  William,  D.D.,   .  313 

New  Heavens  and  Earth, 249 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac, 314 

Newton,  Bishop  Thomas,  D.D.,  ....    312 
Noel,  Hon.  and  Rev.  Gerard  T.,   .    ■   .    359 

Open  Book,  the  Symbol  of .....   .     33 

Pareus,  David, 65 

Philo, 284 

Philpot,  Rev.  B., 370 

Poor,  Rev.  Daniel,  D.D., 396 

Prince,  Rev.  Thomas, 335 

Prophecies  Foreshadowing  the  End,  .  17 
Prophecy,  not  understood  till  near  its 

Eulfilment, 14 

"           Unsealed  by  the  Apocalypse,  21 

"            Indifference  to  displeasing,  23 

Prophetic  Calendar,  our  Position  in,   .  88 
Prophetic  Periods  necessarily  obscure  to 

the  Early  Christians 23 

Pym,  Rev.  William, 362 

Reformation,  the  Epoch  of 33 

"  under  the  Sixth  Trumpet,    37 

Richards,  Rev.  John,  D.D.,  .....    392 

Ridley,  Bishop  Nicholas  , 306 

Rudd,  Sayer, 325 

Rutherford,  Rev.  Samuel 327 

Sabine,  Charles, 376 

Sander,  Rev.  Frederic, 64 

Say  brook  Platform, 335 

Scott,  Rev.  Thomas,  D.D., 65 

Schemes  of  Chronology, 113 

Sermon  by  Rev.  Thomas  Chalmers,     .  251 

"        "  Rev.  John  Wesley,  ....  204 

Seven  Thunders  uttered  their  Voices,  .  43 

Shimeal,Rev.  R.  C, 60 

Signs  of  the  Second  Advent, 173 


Sirr,  Rev.  Joseph  D'Arcy, 357 

Six  Thousand  Years,  the  expected  Peri- 
od of  the  World's  Duration,  ...  24 

Spaulding,  Rev.  Joshua, 335 

Sterry,  Peter, 316 

Stuart,  Rev.  James  Haldane,    ....  369 

Stuart,  Prof.  Moses, 46 

Symbol  of  the  Open  Book, 33 

Tabular  Schemes  of  Chronology,  .   .   .    113 
Taylor,  Bishop  Jeremy,     ....    300,  310 

Testimony  of  the  Reformers, 301 

"              "         Martyrs  of  the  Church,  305 
"              "        Old  English  Divines,  .    309 
"               "        Westminster  Divines,    314 
"             "        Old  English   Dissent- 
ers,      317 

"  "        Early  N.  Eng.  Divines,  329 

"  "        Baptist   Divines,    .    .    337 

"  "        Methodist  Divines,    .    343 

"  "        Scotch  Presbyterians,  346 

"  "        Min's  of  the  Eng.  Ch.,  351 

"  «        English  Laymen,  .    .    373 

"  "        Am.  Epis.  Divines,  .    384 

"  "        Pres.   and   Congrega- 

tionalists, 387 

"  "        Missionaries,  ....    394 

The  Moslem  and  his  End, 219 

"   Temporal  Millennium  a  Novelty,  .    295 
"   Time  of    the    End  a    Subject    of 

Prophecy, 14 

"   Time,  the  Shortening  of,     ....      36  , 

"    Time  not  then,       43 

"   Word  to  be  again  Preached,    .   .      44 

Tholuck, 282,  285 

Those  who  Sleep  in  Jesus, 297 

Thorp,  William, 376 

Toplady,  Rev.  Augustus  Montague,   .    326 
Truth,  Applicable  to  each  Age,  ....      15 

Twisse,  William,  D.D., 315 

Tyndal 300 

Tyng,  Rev.  Stephen  W.,  D.D.,     ...    385 

Usher,  Archbishop  James,  D.D.,    .   .    309 

Views  of  Luther  and  the  Reformers,  .  35 

Views  of  Dr.  John  Gumming,    ....  159 

Villiers,  Hon.  and  Rev.  H.  Slontague,  361 

Vincent,  Thomas, 318 

*\Valley,  Rev.  Thomas, 330 

Ward,  Rev.  F.  De  W., 390 

Watchman,  what  of  the  Night  ?  .    .   .  7 

Watson,  Thomas, 319 

Watts,  Rev.  Isaac,  D.D., 325 

Watts,  Rev.  J., 34B 

Wesley,  Rev.  John, 54,343 

Wesley,  Rev.  Charles, 343 

While  the  Bridegroom  Tarried,  &c., .   .  31 

Whiston,  Rev.  William,      65 

Whitby,  Rev.  Daniel,  D.D.,     ....  296 

Whiting.  Rev.  Samuel, 330 

Wickes,  Rev.  Thomas, 393 

Winthrop,  Rev.  Edward, 385 

Wolf,  Rev.  Joseph, 63 

Wood,  Hans, 56 

Woodward,  Rev.  Henry, 361 

Year-Day,  Principle  of  Interpretation,     45 


THE   TIME   OF   THE   END. 


"  I  heard,  but  I  understood  not :  then  said  I,  0  my  Lord,  what  shall 
be  the  cud  of  these  things?    And  he  said,  Go  thy  way,  Daniel,  for  the 

WORDS    ARE   CLOSED    UP    AND   SEALED   TILL   TUE   TIME    OF    THE    EXD.       Many 

shall  be  purified,  and  made  white,  and  tried  ;  but  the  wicked  shall  do 
•wickedly  :  and  none  of  the  wicked  shall  understand  ;  but  the  wise  shall 
understand."  —  Daniel  12  :  8 — 10. 

That  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  are  the  Lord's  Watchmen, 
and  that  it  is  incumbent  on  them  carefully  to  familiarize 
themselves  with  the  teachings  of  the  Sacred  Oracles,  and 
to  bear  to  the  church  and  world,  as  Ambassadors  of  Christ, 
a  fiiithful  testimony  of  what  is  therein  inculcated,  will  hardly 
be  denied  by  any  regenerated  believer  in  Inspiration.  "  For 
thus  hath  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  Go  set  a  Watchman,  let 
him  declare  what  he  seeth."  —  Isa.  21:  6,  Of  such, 
multitudes  of  anxious  listeners  arc  now  seriously  inquiring, 

'•'  Watchman,  what  of  the  Night  ? " 

Is  that  inquiry  a  reasonable  one,  or  do  those  inquired  of 
satisfy  the  obligations  devolving  on  them,  when  such  in- 
quiries are  left  unheeded  ? 

THE  EXPECTATION  GENERAL,  THAT  A  CRISIS  IS 
IMPENDING. 

That  this  world  is  verging  towards  a  momentous  crisis, 
is  testified  to  by  men  in  every  walk  and  department  of  life. 
Endeavor  to  divest  themselves  of  the  impression  as  they 
may,  they  cannot  shake  off  the  conviction  that  events  of 
unprecedented  importance  are  impending,  which  may  change 
and  revolutionize  the  whole  framework  of  society.  Men 
may  not  be  agreed  as  to  the  natnre  of  these ;  but,  whatever 
their  views  respecting  the  future,  they  express  themselves 
in  similar  phraseology,  and  unite  in  denominating  the  era 

iDALE  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


8  THE   TIME   OF  THE   END. 

in  Avhich  we  live  as  one  that  is  to  be  terminated  by  "  the 
sounding  of  the  seventh  trumpet,"  "the  binding  of  the 
Great  Red  Dragon,"  "the  regeneration,"  "the  pouring 
out  of  the  Apocalyptic  Vials,"  "  the  battle  of  Armaged- 
don," &c.  &c.,—  terms  -which  inspiration  and  the  faith  of 
the  church  have  ever  connected  with  the  ushering  in  of  the 
millennium.  Are  all  these  voluntary  utterances  meaning- 
less expressions  and  idle  rhetorical  flourishes,  designed 
merely  to  amuse  the  hearer  or  reader  ?  or  are  they  solemn 
expressions  of  honest  and  serious  convictions  ?  And  if  so, 
whence  come  these  convictions,  and  whence  originates  the 
impression,  everywhere  encountered,  that  events  of  start- 
ling importance,  and  Avorld-wide  interest,  are  about  to 
transpire  ?  Can  they  be  other  than  the  premonitions  which 
God,  by  His  providence  and  grace,  grants  to  His  children 
when  about  to  perform  any  marvellous  work  ? 

GOD  REVEALS  COMING  EVENTS. 

No  truth  of  inspiration  can  be  more  clearly  enunciated 
than  that  "  Surely  the  Lord  God  doeth  nothing,  but  He 
revealeth  His  secret  unto  His  servants,  the  prophets."  — 
Amos  3  :  7.  He  does  not  necessarily  do  this  by  a  special 
revelation,  nor  by  visible  manifestations, —  His  communica- 
tions with  men  being  different  in  different  ao;es  of  the  world. 
"  God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spake  in 
time  past  unto  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these 
last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  His  Son."  (Hcb.  1  :  1,  2.) 
And  the  prophets  by  whom  He  now  speaks  are  the  faithful 
men  who  are  called  in  His  providence,  and  qualified  by  His 
grace,  to  become  "ambassadors  for  Christ;"  and  He  re- 
vealeth His  secrets  to  them  by  moving  them  to  the  study, 
and  enlightening  them  to  comprehend  the  import,  of  the 
"  Sure  Word  of  Prophecy,  whereunto,"  says  an  inspired 
apostle,  "ye  do  well  that  ye  take  heed,  as  unto  a  light  that 
shineth  in  a  dark  place,  until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day- 
star  arise  in  your  hearts." 

It  is  not  to  be  truthfully  disputed  that,  during  the  last 
half-century,  the  attention  of  the  church  has  been  called  to 
the  study  of  the  prophetic  Scriptures,  in  a  manner  never 
before  witnessed,  and  with  an  intensity  and  earnestness  of 
investigation   that  is  irreconcilable  with   any  theory  that 


GOD  REVEALS  COMING  EVENTS. 


denies  that  God  is  thus  moving  upon  the  people,  and  pre- 
paring His  chosen  ones  for  some  manifestation  of  His  deal- 
ings Avith  them,  the  nature  of  Avhich  can  only  be  known  by 
a  careful  and  prayerful  study  of  His  Word. 

That  He  should  thus  give  admonition  of  the  future  is  in 
harmony  with  the  record  of  all  His  past  doings.  Said  the 
Rev.  John  Hooper  : 

"  As  God  is  one^  having  one  will  and  one  purpose,  so 
His  dealing  with  mankind  has  ever  been  the  same.  What 
He  was  to  man  at  the  beginning,  and  what  He  was  to  him 
in  after  ages,  that  He  is  now  and  ever  will  be ;  '  Jesus 
Christ,  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever : '  He 
changeth  not,  neither  can  change.  To  this  the  Psalmist 
beareth  witness,  saying,  '  Thy  memorial,  0,  Lord,  endureth 
throughout  all  ages.'  Now,  one  great  feature  in  God^s  deal- 
ing towards  His  people  is,  that  He  revealeth  himself  to 
them  according  to  the  age  in  which  they  live,  and  according 
to  their  need  in  their  day  and  generation,  that  they,  know- 
ing His  will  and  purpose  concerning  them,  might  worship 
Him  truly  and  serve  Him  acceptably,  and  so  be  prepared 
for  greater  manifestations  of  His  glory,  and  dwell  forever 
in  His  presence."' — Apoc,  p.  12. 

In  accordance  wntli  this  principle,  when  man  had  flillen 
from  the  created  innocence  in  which  God  had  placed  him, 
one  of  God's  first  acts  towards  him  was  to  reveal  His  pur- 
pose of  redemption,  by  the  triumph  of  the  Seed  of  the 
woman  over  the  head  of  the  serpent.  When  the  wickedness 
of  man  had  become  great  on  the  earth,  and  it  was  necessary 
to  destroy  all  flesh  by  a  flood  of  waters,  God  revealed  His 
purpose  to  Noah,  and  instructed  him  to  build  an  ark,  so 
that  as  many  as  believed  might  enter  in,  and  be  saved  from 
the  coming  judgment.  During  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years  the  long-suffering  of  God  then  waited,  and  men  doubt- 
less were  faithfully  admonished  and  entreated  ;  and  though 
the  unbelieving  multitude  knew  not  the  nearness  of  the 
judgment  till  the  flood  came  and  swept  them  all  away,  yet 
those  that  believed  were  in  the  secret  of  God,  entered  into 
the  ark  at  the  appointed  time,  and  were  all  saved.  At  a 
later  period,  when  the  nations  had  become  sunk  into  idolatry, 
and  Abraham,  apparently,  was  alone  faithful,  God  commu- 
nicated His  purpose  to  make  his  seed  a  blessing  to  all  the 


10  THE    TIiME    OF   THE    END. 

nations  of  the  earth,  revealed  the  length  of  their  sojourn- 
ings,  and  made  known  the  time  of  their  restoration.  When 
the  destruction  of  -wicked  Sodom  was  determined  on,  the 
Lord  said  (Gen.  18 :  17),  "  Shall  I  hide  from  Abraham 
that  thing  which  I  do,  seeing  that  Abraham  shall  surely 
become  a  great  and  mighty  nation,  and  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  shall  be  blessed  in  him  ?  "  And  due  notice  was 
given  to  righteous  Lot,  who,  with  his  daughters,  Avas  pre- 
served ;  and  none,  even  in  that  guilty  city,  perished  without 
due  warning.  When  "the  time  of  the  promise  drew  nigh 
which  God  had  sworn  unto  Abraham  "  (Acts  7 :  17),  we 
find  the  children  of  Israel  (Ex.  1 :  23)  sighing  by  reason 
of  their  bondage,  and  crying  unto  God  for  deliverance.  We 
also  find  that  Moses  was  divinely  moved  to  visit  his  breth- 
ren, supposing  they  "  would  have  understood  how  that  God 
by  his  hand  would  deliver  them;  but  they  understood  not," 
till  the  period  of  their  Egyptian  servitude  was  more  nearly 
fulfilled  :  when  Moses  spake  unto  them  the  words  of  Jeho- 
vah and  performed  wonders  in  their  sight,  and  "  the  people 
believed."  This  was  a  prerequisite  for  their  deliverance; 
and  so  (Ex.  12:  41)  "it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  the 
four  hundred  and  thirty  years,  even  the  self-same  day  it 
came  to  pass,  that  all  the  hosts  of  the  Lord  went  out  from 
the  land  of  Egypt."  As  we  come  down  through  the  periods 
of  Jewish  history,  and  it  became  necessary  to  punish  them 
for  their  transgressions  (2  Ch.  36  :  15),  "the  Lord  God  of 
their  fathers  sent  to  them  by  His  messengers,  rising  up 
betimes,  and  sending;  because  He  had  compassion "  on 
them.  When  ' '  they  mocked  the  messengers  of  God,  and 
despised  His  words,"  so  that  His  wrath  "arose  against  His 
people,  till  there  was  no  remedy,"  they  w"ere  graciously 
informed  of  the  duration  of  their  punishment, —  that  it  was 
to  be  in  Babylon  for  seventy  years.  As  what  is  once  writ- 
ten needs  no  repetition  by  a  special  revelation,  so  the  record 
of  Jeremiah  (25 :  11)  was  amply  sufficient  to  make  known 
the  end  of  the  Babylonish  servitude.  And,  accordingly, 
we  read  that  Daniel  (9:  2)  "understood  by  books  the 
number  of  years,  whereof  the  word  of  the  Lord  came  to 
Jeremiah  the  prophet,  that  He  would  accomplish  seventy 
years  in  the  desolations  of  Jerusalem  ;  "  and,  therefore,  he 
set  his  heart  towards  God  to  seek  its  accomplishment.     To 


GOD  REVEALS  COMING  EVENTS.  11 

him  also  was  made  known  (Dan.  9  :  25 — 27)  '"that  from 
the  going  forth  of  the  commandment  to  restore  and  to  build 
Jerusalem  unto  the  Messiah  the  Prince,  shall  be  seven 
weeks,  and  three-score  and  two  weeks,"  of  symbolic  time, 
or  four  hundred  and  eighty-three  years.  And  in  just  that 
period  from  the  date  of  the  decree  wliich  Artaxerxes  the 
king  gave  to  the  priest  Ezra  (7:  11),  we  hear  "  a  voice 
from  heaven  (Matt.  3:  17)  saying,  This  is  my  beloved 
Son  in  Avhom  I  am  well  ple;ised."  And  the  Saviour  affirms 
the  accuracj'^  of  the  prediction  when  he  declares  (Mark  1 : 
15),  "77«e  time  is  fuIJUhd^  and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  at 
hand  :  repent  ye,  and  believe  the  Gospel."'  Previous  to 
the  appearing  of  our  Lord,  there  were  those  among  the 
Jews  who  understood  from  the  Scriptures  that  the  time  of 
Ilis  advent  drew  near,  and  who  were  "  waiting  for  the  con- 
solation of  Israel."  To  one  of  these,  the  "just  and  devout  " 
Simeon  (Luke  2  :  26),  "  it  was  revealed  that  he  should  not 
see  death  till  he  had  seen  the  Lord's  Christ."  And  there 
was  a  widow,  also  (v.  CG),  "one  Anna,  a  prophetess,"  "of 
about  four-score  and  four  years,  which  departed  not  from 
the  temple,  but  served  God  with  fastings  and  prayers  night 
and  day,"  who  "spake  of  Him  to  all  them  that  looked  for 
redemption  in  Jerusalem."  Not  only  (Matt.  13:  17) 
"  many  righteous  men  desired  "  to  see  His  day,  but  the 
opinion  was  so  general,  that  when  the  Baptist  preceded  Him, 
Luke  3  :  15,  "  the  people  were  in  expectation,  and  all  men 
mused  in  their  hearts  of  John,  whether  he  were  the  Christ 
or  no."  Nor  was  the  belief  confined  to  Palestine,  that 
some  remarkable  personage  was  about  \o  appear  in  Judea. 
Says  Suetonius,  a  Roman  historian,  "An  ancient  and  set- 
tled persuasion  prevailed  throughout  the  East,  that  the 
Fates  had  decreed  some  one  to  proceed  from  Judea,  who 
should  attain  universal  empire."  And  Tacitus,  another 
Roman  historian,  says,  "  Many  were  persuaded  that  it  was 
contained  in  the  ancient  books  of  their  priests,  that  at  that 
very  time  the  East  should  prevail,  and  that  some  one  should 
proceed  from  Judea,  and  possess  the  dominion."  When  He 
came,  the  glad  tidings  of  His  birth  were  announced  by 
angelic  voices  to  shepherds  who  were  keeping  watch  over 
their  flocks  by  night ;  and  wise  men,  recognizing  His  star 
in  the  east,  came  to  woi-ship  Him.     A  forerunner  was  sent 


12  THE   TIME    OF   THE    END, 

to  prepare  the  vfaj  before  Him  ;  and  those  who  received 
Him  not  were  rejected,  "  because,"  as  He  said  to  Jerusa- 
lem (Luke  19:  44),  "  thou  knewest  not  the  time  of  thy 
visitation."  When  He  laid  down  His  life,  He  first  revealed, 
not  only  to  His  disciples,  but  to  the  entire  nation,  that  in 
three  days  He  should  rise  again ;  and  when  He  ascended 
on  high.  He  left  the  promise  of  the  bestowal  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  till  the  reception  of  which  the  disciples  were  com- 
manded to  tarry  at  Jerusalem.  If  these  illustrations  are  not 
sufficient,  we  have  on  record  the  Saviour's  prediction  of  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem  during  the  continuance  of  the  gen- 
eration that  rejected  Him,  which  was  fulfilled  in  less  than 
forty  years  subsequent  to  His  crucifixion.  And,  that  the 
Christians  living  in  Judea  might  escape  its  impending  doom, 
they  were  told  (Luke  21:  20)  that  when  they  should  "  see 
Jerusalem  encompassed  with  armies,"  or,  in  other  language 
(as  in  Matt.  24:  15),  "the  abomination  of  desolation 
spoken  of  by  Daniel  the  prophet  stand  in  the  holy  place," 
they  were  to  "flee  to  the  mountains;"  which  admonition 
they  heeded,  and  escaped  safe  to  Pella. 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  inspiration  respecting  the  uni- 
form dealings  of  God  with  His  people  in  past  ages  ;  in  view 
of  which,  is  it  to  be  supposed  that  an  unchangeable  Being 
should  pursue  an  opposite  policy  respecting  events  of  the 
future,  particularly  when  that  future  is  to  witness  the 
"crowning  consummation  of  all  prophetic  declarations"? 
Under  every  dispensation,  the  near  coming  of  every  great 
event  has  been  known  to  His  people.  In  every  important 
instance  He  has  told  them  what  He  was  about  to  do ;  so 
that  none  of  them  were  ignorant  of  it,  or  unprepared  for  it, 
who  regarded  His  revelations  respecting  it  —  those  only 
being  left  in  darkness  who  disregarded  and  wickedly  closed 
their  eyes  and  ears  to  the  instruction  which  God  gave  them. 
Therefore  it  cannot  be  that  God  will  withhold  from  His 
people,  in  any  age,  such  knowledge  of  their  own  times  as 
is  needed  for  their  serving  Him  acceptably  in  the  perform- 
ance of  the  duties  pertaining  to  their  respective  age.  And 
that  He  would  not  do  so  respecting  the  time  of  the  closing 
of  the  present,  and  the  ushering  in  of  the  Millennial  dis- 
pensation, may  be  clearly  inferred  from  the  considerations 
already  presented. 


THE    OBSCURITY    OF    PROPHECY.  13 


PROPHECY  NOT  UNDERSTOOD  TILL  NEAR  ITS 
FULFILMENT. 

It  is  not  in  accordance  with  God's  providential  dealings 
to  suppose  that  the  epoch  of  the  occurrence  of  events  should 
be  ///////  known  for  a  long  period  previous  to  their  fulfil- 
ment :  for  such  knowledge  is  not  needed  by  those  who  live 
in  earlier  periods  of  tlie  worhl's  history.  Forty  years  before 
the  deliverance  of  Israel  from  Eg^'^pt  (Acts  7 :  25),  "they 
understood  not ''  that  God  would  deliver  them  by  the  hand 
of  INIoscs.  When  Daniel  inquired  respecting  the  end  of 
wonders  that  extended  to  the  resurrection,  he  was  told  (Dan. 
12:  9)  that  "the  words  are  closed  up  and  sealed  till  the 
time  of  the  end."  And  when  (1  Pet.  1 :  10—12)  "  proph- 
ets have  inquired  and  searched  diligently,  who  prophesied 
of  the  grace  that  should  come  unto  you  :  searching  what, 
or  what  man?icT  of  time,  the  Spirit  of  Christ  which  was  in 
them  did  signify,  when  it  testified  beforehand  of  the  suffer- 
ings of  Christ,  and  t/ic  glory  that  should  follow^''  it  was 
revealed  unto  them,  "  that  not  unto  themselves,  but  unto  us 
they  did  minister." 

The  declaration  that  the  words  were  sealed  up  till  "the 
time  of  the  end,"  implies  that,  at  the  period  referred  to,  the 
obscurity,  in  which  they  might  be  shrouded  from  the  under- 
standing of  those  living  in  previous  ages,  would  be  pene- 
trated, so  that  their  import  should  be  no  longer  a  sealed 
mystery.  Not  only  so,  but,  in  the  context,  it  is  expressly 
declared  (Dan.  12:4)  that,  at  the  time  or  period  of  the 
end,  "many  shall  run  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  shall  be 
increased."'  And  it  is  also  added  (v.  10),  that  "  many 
shall  be  purified  and  made  white,  and  tried :  but  the  wicked 
shall  do  wickedly  :  and  none  of  the  wicked  shall  understand : 
but  the  wise  shall  understand."  That  which  they  were  to 
understand  was  that  which  was  to  be  closed  up  and  sealed 
till  that  period  of  understanding  should  arrive,  and  which, 
by  its  being  denominated  a  ''time,''  may,  perhaps,  be  un- 
dei-stood  as  comprising  a  period  of  three  hundred  and  sixty 
years,*  commencing,  not  unlikely,  with  the  Protestant  reform- 

*  If  the  date  of  the  Reformation  be  1517,  a  time,  oi'  three  hundred  and 
sixty  years,  carries  us  to  1877,  the  period  within  which  the  mystery  of  God 
should  be  finished.  —  jRci'.  Edward  Bickcrstcth's  Practical  Guide  to  the 
Prophecies. 

9 


14  THE  TIME    OF  THE   END. 

ation,  during  whicli  knowledge  was  to  be  disseminated,  and 
to  be  continually  increased  by  the  running  to  and  fro  of 
many, —  their  running  to  and  fro  being  not  a  movement  in 
space,  but  put  by  substitution  for  the  various  and  often 
contradictory  interpretations  which  should  be  advanced,  each 
serving  to  call  attention  and  adding  interest  to  the  subject, 
until  the  true  light  should  have  gradually  dawned  on  the 
minds  of  believers,  Avho  should  earnestly  give  themselves  to 
the  study  of  unfulfilled  prophecy.  For  (Prov.  18  :  15) 
'*the  ear  of  the  wise  seeketh  knowledge;"  and,  said  the 
prophet  (Hos.  14:  9),  "Who  is  wise,  and  he  shall  under- 
stand these  things;  prudent,  and  he  shall  know  them  ?  " 
Such  will  delight  in  the  study  of  *'the  things  Avhich  shall 
be  revealed.'' 

THE  TIME  OF  THE  END  A  SUBJECT  OP  PROPHECY. 

That  the  period  of  the  advent  will  be  known,  may  not 
only  be  inferred  fi-om  the  analogy  of  God's  providence  in 
past  ages,  but  it  is  clearly  demonstrable  from  the  testimony 
of  Holy  Writ.  When  inquired  of  by  His  disciples,  JMatt. 
24 :  3,  "  What  shall  be  the  sign  of  Thy  coming  and  of  the 
end  of  the  world  ?"  the  Saviour  told  them  the  signs  that 
should  precede  those  events.  And  though  (v.  36)  "of 
that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels  in 
heaven,  but  my  Father  only,"  so  that  none  may  presump- 
tuously dogmatize  respecting  particular  dates,  yet  in  refer- 
ence to  the  signs  He  had  given,  He  said  (vs.  32,  33),  "  Now 
learn  a  parable  of  the  fig-tree  :  When  his  branch  is  yet 
tender,  and  putteth  forth  leaves,  ye  know  that  summer  is 
nigh ;  so  Ukeivise  ye,  when  ye  shall  see  all  these  things, 
know  that  it  is  near,  even  at  the  doors."  Or,  as  Luke 
expresses  it  (21 :  28),  "When  these  things  begin  to  come  to 
pass,  then  look  up  and  lift  up  your  heads,  for  your  redemp- 
tion draweth  nigh."  They  would  know^  enough  of  its  near- 
ness to  induce  Avatchfulness  and  a  preparation  for  the  event; 
but  their  knowledge  Avould  not  be  sufiiciently  definite  to 
make  it  safe  to  postpone  the  event,  in  their  own  minds,  to  a 
period  beyond  any  present  moment ;  and  so  the  Saviour 
said  (Matt.  24:  42,  44),  "  Watch  therefore  :  for  ye  know 
not  what  hour  your  Lord  doth  come.  .  .  .  Therefore  be  ye 
also  ready  :  for  in  such  an  hour  as  ye  think  not  the  Son  of 


TRUTH    APPLICABLE   TO    ITS    OWN    AGE.  15 

man  cometli."  But,  while  (1  Th.  5  :  24)  "  the  day  of  the 
Lord  so  Cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night,"  "  sudden  destruc- 
tion Cometh  '  only  on  those  who  "shall  say  peace  and 
safety:  '"  Avliich  Christ's  children  will  not  do:  for,  address- 
ing them,  the  apostle  says,  "  Ye,  brethren,  are  not  in  dark- 
ness, that  that  day  should  overtake  you  as  a  thief.  Ye  are 
all  the  children  of  the  light  and  the  children  of  the  day ; 
•\ve  arc  not  of  the  night  nor  of  the  darkness.  Therefore  let 
us  not  sleep  as  do  others,  but  let  us  watch  and  be  sober." 

Thus  the  nearness  of  the  end  was  to  be  known  for  a 
period  previous  to  its  occurrence  ;  and  not  only  so,  but 
ignorance  or  indifference  respecting  its  approach  may  be 
attended  with  serious  consequences ;  for,  otherwise,  there 
Avould  be  little  significancy  in  the  Saviour's  admonition 
(Luke  21 :  34 — 3(J),  '•  Take  heed  to  yourselves,  lest  at  any 
time  your  hearts  be  overcharged  with  surfeiting  and  drunk- 
enness, and  cares  of  this  life,  and  so  that  day  come  upon 
3^ou  iiuavmres.  For  as  a  snare  shall  it  come,"  not  on 
those  who  know  that  their  redemption  draweth  nigh,  but 
'^  on  all  them  tliat  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earth. 
Watch  ye,  therefore,  and  pray  always,  that  ye  may  be 
accounted  worthy  to  escape  all  these  things  that  shall  come 
to  pass,  and  to  stand  before  the  Son  of  Man,"  —  of  whom 
Paul  says  (Heb.  9  :  28),  that,  "Unto  them  that  look  for 
Him  shall  He  appear  the  second  time  without  sin  unto  sal- 
vation." Thus  Christians  were  expected  to  live  (Titus  2  : 
13),  "  looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  and  the  glorious  ap- 
pearing of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ." 


THE  TRUTH  APPLICABLE  TO  EACH  AGE  IMPERATIVE 
ON  THAT  AGE. 

"While  no  truth  is  to  be  neglected  in  the  dispensation  of 
the  Word,  it  is  particularly  the  duty  of  Christ's  ambassa- 
dors, and  it  is  made  imperative  on  them,  to  instruct  the 
church  and  make  known  to  the  world,  in  a  more  emphatic 
manner,  those  truths  which  have  a  specific  application  to 
the  times  in  Avhich  they  live,  whether  they  have  respect  to 
sins  which  prevail  then  more  than  at  other  times,  duties 
whose  performance  is  then  more  imperatively  demanded,  or 
predictions  which  are  then  near  to  be  fulfilled.     And  this, 


16  THE    TIMR    OF   THE    END. 

in  the  beautiful  imagery  Avith  -wliich  the  Saviour  illustrated 
his  teachings,  is  called  giving  "  meat  in  due  season,"  by  the 
faithful  servant  ^vho  is  made  ruler  over  the  household ;  and, 
to  neglect  to  do  this,  is  to  be  unfaithful  to  the  charge  com- 
mitted  by  Christ  to  His  ministers.  Said  the  Saviour  (Matt. 
24:45 — 51),  "Who  then  is  a  faithful  and -wise  servant, 
•whom  his  lord  hath  made  ruler  over  his  household,  to  give 
them  meat  in  due  season  ?  Blessed  is  that  servant,  Avhom 
his  lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find  so  doing.  Verily,  I  say 
unto  you,  that  he  shall  make  him  ruler  over  all  his  goods. 
But  and  if  that  evil  servant  shall  say  in  his  heart,  JMy  lord 
delayeth  his  coming ;  and  shall  begin  to  smite  his  fellow- 
servants,  and  to  eat  and  drink  with  the  drunken,  the  lord 
of  that  servant  shall  come  in  a  day  when  he  looketh  not  for 
hira,  and  in  an  hour  that  he  is  not  aware  of.  and  shall  cut 
him  asunder,  and  appoint  him  his  portion  Avith  the  hypo- 
crites; there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth;  "  and 
(in  Mark  13  :  34)  "  The  Son  of  man  is  as  a  man  taking  a 
far  journey,  who  left  his  house,  and  gave  authority  to  his 
servants,  and  to  every  man  his  work,  and  com.manded  the 
porter  to  watch."  Can  the  porter  be  negligent  of  his  duty 
without  incurring  the  displeasure  of  the  Master  ? 

What,  then,  is  implied  in  the  duty  of  watching  ?  The 
context  shows  that  it  has  reference  to  the  Master's  return ; 
which,  being  shrouded  in  a  kind  of  definite  indefiniteness,  if 
the  paradoxy  may  be  allowed,  makes  the  duty  constant  and 
unceasing.  Said  the  Saviour  (vs.  35,  36),  "  Watch  ye, 
therefore  ;  for  ye  know  not  when  the  Master  cometh, —  at 
even,  or  at  midnight,  or  at  the  cock-crowing,  or  in  the 
morning;  lest,  coming  suddenly,  he  find  you  sleeping." 

As  a  porter  watching  for  his  master's  return  would  be 
mindful  of  all  the  tokens  Avhich  the  master  had  given  as 
indications  of  his  coming,  so  should  the  servant  of  Him,  who 
has  promised  to  return  again,  familiarize  himself  with  all 
the  predictions  which  are  left  on  record  respecting  that 
return,  the  events  that  were  to  precede  it,  and  the  periods 
that  measure  His  absence.  And,  if  we  are  indeed  living 
in  the  time  of  the  end  (which  who  dare  deny  ?),  then  they 
are  culpably  indifferent  and  ignorant,  Avho  seek  not  to  "  un- 
derstand by  books,"  as  did  Daniel  of  old,  the  "  number  of 
years  "  which  are  to  intervene  between  given  epochs  and 


PROPHECIES    OF   THE    END,  17 

the  end,  or  to  approximate  as  near  to  such  knowledge  as 
tlie  means  which  God  has  furnished  them  will  allow. 


PROPHECIES  FORESHADO"WING  THE  END. 

Among  the  prophecies  which  were  given  for  instruction 
respecting  the  end,  there  stands  prominent  the  great  Imago 
(Dan.  2 :  28),  by  which  the  "God  in  heaven"  maile 
"  known  to  the  king  Nebuchadnezzar  what  shall  be  in  the 
latter  days."  (Vs.  32,  33.)  —  "  This  image's  head  was  of 
fine  gold,  his  breast  and  his  arms  of  silver,  his  belly  and 
his  thighs  of  brass,  his  legs  of  iron,  and  his  feet  part  of 
iron  and  part  of  clay."  The  king  saw  (vs.  34,  35)  '•  Till 
that  a  stone  was  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  hands, 
which  smote  the  image  upon  his  feet  that  were  of  iron  and 
clay,  and  brake  them  to  pieces  :  then  was  the  iron,  the  clay, 
the  brass,  the  silver  and  the  gold,  broken  to  pieces  together, 
and  became  like  the  chaft'  of  the  summer  threshing-tloors ; 
and  the  wind  carried  them  away,  that  no  place  was  found 
for  them ;  and  the  stone  that  smote  the  image  became  a 
great  mountain,  and  filled  the  whole  earth."  Such  was  the 
king's  dream,  which  Daniel  proceeded  to  interpret  as  .sym- 
bolic of  a  succession  of  empires,  beginning  with  that  of 
Nebuchadnezzar,  w  Inch  was  represented  by  the  head  of  gold. 
An  inferior  one,  that  was  to  arise  after  him,  corresponded  to 
the  breast  and  arms  of  silver;  and  succeeding  ones  corre- 
sponded to  the  brass  and  the  iron  of  the  image.  When  the 
last  should  have  existed  for  a  period  in  a  divided  state,  then, 
said  the  prophet  (v.  44),  "  shall  the  God  of  heaven  set  up  a 
kingdom,  which  shall  never  be  destroyed ;  and  the  kingdom 
shall  not  be  left  to  other  people,  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces 
and  consume  all  these  kingdoms,  and  it  shall  stand  for- 
ever." 

Parallel  with  this  prophecy  is  that  other  in  the  7th  of 
Daniel,  in  which  the  prophet  saw  in  vision  by  night  (v.  3), 
"  four  great  beasts  come  up  from  the  sea,  diverse  one  from 
another," — the  last  of  which  had  ten  horns ;  and  among  them 
(v.  8)  came  up  another  "little  horn,"  with  "eyes  like  the 
eyes  of  a  man,  and  a  mouth  speaking  great  things."  Then 
followed  a  symbolic  representation  of  the  session  of  the 
Ancient  of  Days,  the  slaughter  of  the  beasts,  and  the  inves- 
2* 


18  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 


ture  of  one  like  the  Son  of  Man  with  the  kingdom.  In 
harmony  with  the  former  vision,  the  interpreter,  of  whom 
Daniel  inquired  the  meaning  of  this,  said  (vs.  17,  18), 
"  These  great  beasts,  which  are  four,  are  four  kings  which 
shall  arise  out  of  the  earth.  But,"  he  added,  "  thg  saints 
of  the  Most  High  shall  take  the  kingdom,  and  possess  the 
kingdom  for  ever,  even  for  ever  and  ever."  As  Daniel 
would  know  more  particularly  of  the  beast  with  many  horns, 
and  of  that  horn  which  "prevailed  until  the  Ancient  of 
Days  came,  .  .  .  and  the  time  came  that  the  saints  possessed 
the  kingdom,"  the  angel  replied  (vs.  23—27),  "  The  fourth 
beast  shall  be  the  fourth  kingdom  upon  earth,  which  shall 
be  diverse  from  all  kingdoms,  and  shall  devour  the  Avhole 
earth,  and  shall  tread  it  down,  and  break  it  in  pieces.  And 
the  ten  horns  out  of  this  kingdom  are  ten  kings  that  shall 
arise;  and  another  shall  rise  after  them,  and  he  shall  be 
diverse  from  the  first,  and  he  shall  subdue  three  kings. 
And  he  shall  speak  great  words  against  the  Most  High,  and 
shall  wear  out  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  and  think  to 
change  times  and  laws ;  and  they  shall  be  given  into  his 
hand  until  a  time  and  times  and  the  dividing  of  time.  But 
the  judgment  shall  sit,  and  they  shall  take  away  his 
dominion,  to  consume  and  to  destroy  it  unto  the  end.  And 
the  kingdom  and  dominion,  and  the  greatness  of  the  king- 
dom under  the  whole  heaven,  shall  be  given  to  the  people 
of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  kingdom  is  an  ever- 
lasting kingdom,  and  all  dominions  shall  serve  and  obey 
Him." 

In  the  chapter  following,  w^hen  the  first-named  kingdom 
■was  about  to  pass  away,  Daniel  had  a  corresponding  vision, 
in  which  (v.  8)  a  ram  that  "  stood  before  the  river  "  sym- 
bolized (v.  20)  "  the  kings  of  Media  and  Persia ;  "  and 
(v.  21)  a  "rough  goat  the  king  of  Grecia."  It  was  shown 
(v.  22)  that,  in  the  place  of  the  first  king  of  the  last  king- 
dom, "  four  kingdoms  should  stand  up  out  of  the  nation," 
—  corresponding  to  Alexander's  successors, —  which  w^ere  to 
be  followed  (v.  23),  "in  the  latter  times  of  their  kingdom," 
by  "  a  king  of  fierce  countenance,  and  understanding  dark 
sentences,"  who  should  "  stand  up  against  the  Prince  of 
princes,"  and  "destroy  the  mighty  and  the  holy  people," 
till  the  sanctuary  and  the  host  should  be  trodden  down  (v. 


MISAPPREHENSIONS   CORRECTED.  19 

14)  for  "two  thousand  three  hundred  "  prophetic  days;  at 
the  end  of  wliich  "'  sliall  the  sanctuary  be  cleansed." 

A  prophecy  commencing  with  the  11th  of  Daniel  notices 
more  particularly  the  same  events,  and  closes  with  the 
deliverance  (12  :  1 — 3)  of  "  every  one  that  shall  be  found 
written  in  the  book,"  the  awaking  of  "  many  of  them  that 
sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth,"  and  their  shining  "  as  the 
brightness  of  the  firmament,"  and  **  as  the  stjirs,  for  ever 
and  ever."  It  is  in  connection  with  these  predictions  that 
the  angel  (v.  7)  lifts  "  his  right  iiand  and  his  left  hand  to 
heaven,  and  sware  l)y  Ilim  that  liveth  forever,  that  it  shall 
be  for  a  time,  times  and  an  half;"  and  that  "when  he 
shall  have  accomplished  .to  scatter  the  power  of  the  holy 
people,  all  these  things  shall  be  finished."  He  also  reveals 
(v.  11)  that  "  from  the  time  that  the  daily  shall  be  taken 
away,  and  the  abomination  that  makcth  desolate  set  up, 
there  shall  be  a  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety  days  ;  " 
and  adds  a  blessing  (v.  12)  to  him  "  that  waitcth  and 
Cometh  to  the  thousand  three  hundred  and  five  and  thirty 
days."  This  is  the  prophecy  before  referred  to,  the  words 
of  which  (v.  9)  were  "  closed  up  and  sealed  till  the  time  of 
the  end,"  and  respecting  which,  then,  knowledge  was  to  be 
increased  by  tlje  running  to  and  fro  of  many. 

We  come  then  to  the  New  Testament,  and,  in  answer  to 
questions  of  the  disciples  respecting  the  time  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem,  and  the  sign  of  Ilis  coming  and  end  of 
the  world,  we  have  in  the  24th  chapter  of  Matthew's  gos- 
pel a  prophecy  given  by  the  Saviour  which  answers  both  of 
those  questions  by  a  glance  at  the  occurrences  which  should 
transpire  before  the  end  ;  and  He  emphatically  announced 
(v.  14)  that  "  This  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached 
in  all  the  world  as  a  witness  unto  all  nations  ;  and,"  said 
the  Saviour,  "  then  shall  the  end  come." 

MISAPPREHENSIONS  CORRECTED. 

The  Saviour  was  ever  ready  to  correct  any  misapprehen- 
sion on  the  part  of  His  children  respecting  the  time  of  the 
event.  On  one  occasion  (Luke  21:  11 — 13)  "  He  ac^ed 
and  spake  a  parable  .  • .  because  they  thought  that  the  king- 
dom of  God  should  immediately  appear.    He  said,  therefore, 


20  THE   TIME    OF   THE   END. 

A  certain  nobleman  went  into  a  far  country  to  receive  for 
himself  a  kingdom,  and  to  return.  And  he  called  his  ten 
servants,  and  delivered  unto  tiiem  ten  pounds,  and  said  unto 
them,  Occupy  till  I  come."  And.  after  a  long  time,  when 
he  was  returned,  he  called  his  servants,  and  reckoned  with 
them,  rewarded  those  found  faithful,  and  destroyed  those 
who  disregarded  his  authority.  When  the  Saviour  was 
about  to  leave  His  disciples  to  go  into  that  far  country,  they 
asked  of  Him  (Acts  1  :  6,  7,),  "  saying,  Lord,  wilt  thou  at 
this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to  Israel  ?  And  He  said  unto 
them,  It  is  not  for  you  to  know  the  times  or  the  seasons 
which  the  Father  hath  put  in  his  own  power."  The  "  time  " 
had  not  come, —  the  period  in  wtich  was  to  be  gradually 
removed  the  seal  which  was  set  on  them  till  "  the  time  of 
the  end."  Their  specific  mission  was  to  make  known  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus,  and  the  fact  of  his  second  coming ; 
and  therefore  the  Saviour  said  (v.  8),  "  But  ye  shall 
receive  power  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you  ; 
and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in 
all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth,"  —  to  which  the  Gospel  must  be  preached  before 
the  end  could  come.  Accordingly  we  find  that  the  sum  of  their 
preaching  was  (Acts  17:  18)  "Jesus  and  the  resurrec- 
tion." They  taught  men  (1  Th.  1  :  9,  10)  to  turn  "  to 
God  from  idols,  to  serve  the  living  and  true  God,  and  to 
wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven,  whom  He  raised  from  the 
dead,  even  Jesus  which  delivered  us  from  the  wrath  to 
come." 

When  under  such  preaching  the  Thessalonian  brethren 
were  led  to  regard  the  day  of  the  Lord  as  more  imminent 
than  the  sacred  oracles  warranted  them  in  believing,  the 
apostle  Paul  promptly  called  their  attention  to  the  desolating 
power  prophesied  of  in  Daniel,  and  reminded  them  (2  Th. 
2:3)  that  "  that  day  shall  not  come  except  there  come  a 
falling  away,"  or  an  apostasy,  "first,  and  that  Man  of  Sin 
be  revealed,  the  Son  of  Perdition,"  "  whom  the  Lord  shall 
consume  by  the  spirit  of  His  mouth,  and  shall  destroy  with 
the  brightness  of  His  coming." 


PROPHECY   UNSEALED.  21 


THE  APOCALYPSE  AN  UNVEILING  OR  UNSEALING  OP 
PBOPHECY. 

That  the  drooping  spirits  of  His  children  might  not  be 
left  to  faint  under  the  long  absence  of  the  Nobleman  -who 
had  gone  to  the  far  country  till  Ilis  enemies  be  made  His 
footstool,  before  the  beloved  disciple  was  laid  asleep  in  Jesus 
there  was  given  (Rev.  1:1,2)  "  The  Revelation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  which  God  gave  unto  Him,  to  show  unto  His  ser- 
vants things  which  must  shortly  come  to  pass ;  and  He  sent 
and  signified  it  by  His  angel  unto  His  servant  John,  who 
bare  record  of  the  word  of  God,  and  of  the  testimony  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  of  all  things  that  he  saw."  When  the 
Saviour  was  on  earth  He  told  his  servants  many  things ;  but 
He  had  also  (John  16  :  12)  "  yet  many  things  to  say  "  to 
them  which  they  could  not  then  bear ;  but  in  this  Revela- 
tion to  John  they  are  shown  a  long  series  of  events  which 
>Yere  shortly  to  come  to  pass,  or,  literally,  which  were  shortly 
to  begin  to  come  to  pass,  and  extended  down  to  the  binding 
of  the  dragon,  the  resurrection,  and  the  new  creation.  It 
will  be  seen,  also,  that  this  Revelation  comprised  "times 
and  seasons,"  which,  at  the  time  of  the  ascension  (Acts  1 : 
7),  Avere  reserved  in  the  Father's  own  power,  but  which  have 
here  been  given  to  Jesus  Christ,  shown  unto  his  servants, 
signified  by  an  angel  to  John,  and  written  by  John  to 
the  churches. 

The  words  of  this  Revelation  are  not  sealed  like  those 
given  to  Daniel ;  for  John  was  commanded  (Rev.  22  :  10) 
to  '■^  seal  not  the  sayings  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book." 
It  was  given,  also,  through  the  medium  of  "  the  appointed 
Heir  of  all  things  "  (Heb.  1 :  2),  by  whom  God  was  to 
speak  in  these  last  days,  and  who  alone  (Rev.  5:2)  "is 
worthy  to  open  the  book,  and  to  loose  the  seals  thereof." 
Not  only  (v.  5)  hath  "  the  Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  " 
prevailed  to  open  the  book  and  to  loose  the  seals,  but  it  is 
declared  (1 :  3)  that  "  Blessed  is  he  that  readeth,  and  they 
that  hear,  the  words  of  this  prophecy,  and  keep  those  things 
whicli  are  written  therein." 

Thus  prepared,  there  follows  a  succession  of  visions,  wliich 
John  wrote,  and  whose  significance  was  communicated  to 
him.     First,  we  have  (chap.  5)  the  successive  loosening  of 


22  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

the  seals  of  a  book ;  and,  as  each  symbolic  seal  is  broken, 
successive  portions  of  the  writing  in  the  book  become 
accessible,  showing  the  gradual  manner  in  which  the  church 
would  be  enabled  to  understand  the  full  import  of  the  reve- 
lations which  God  has  given  for  its  instruction,  and  closing 
with  the  appearance  of  "  a  great  multitude,  which  no  man 
could  number,  of  all  nations,  and  kindreds,  and  peoples, 
and  tongues,"  which  (7:9)  "  stood  before  the  throne  and 
before  the  Lamb,  clothed  in  white  robes,  and  palms  in  their 
hands," — the  result  of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  as  a 
witness  to  all  nations. 

Then  follows  (chap.  8)  a  vision  of  the  sounding  of  a  suc- 
cession of  trumpets,  marking  periods  which  are  covered  by 
those  of  the  seals,  symbolizing  events  which  were  to  trans- 
pire during  those  respective  periods,  and  closing  with  the 
seventh  trumpet,  at  the  sounding  of  which  (11  :  15 — 18) 
are  heard  "  great  voices  in  heaven,  saying.  The  kingdoms  of 
this  world  are  become  [that]  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ ; 
and  he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever."  And  then  also  is 
come  (  v.  18)  "  the  time  of  the  dead  that  they  should  be 
judged,"  those  who  serve  the  Lord  being  rewarded,  and 
those  who  destroy''  the  earth  being  destroyed. 

In  harmony  with  these  visions,  others  follow,  in  which  is 
more  minutely  symbolized, —  under  the  imagery  of  a  great 
red,  seven-headed  and  ten-horned  dragon  (chap.  12),  of 
a  seven-headed,  ten-horned  leopard  beast  (chap.  13),  and 
of  a  seven-headed,  ten-horned,  scarlet-colored  beast,  with  a 
woman  seated  on  it  (chap.  17),  and  corresponding  to  Dan- 
iel's (7  :  7)  teu-horned  nondescript  fourth  beast, —  "  the 
fourth  kingdom  on  the  earth,"  or  Rome  under  its  five 
forms  of  united  rule,  its  division  into  decem-regal  gov- 
ernments, and  the  period  of  its  papal  supremacy.  In  the 
connection  are  (11  :  2)  the  treading  down  of  the  holy  city 
"  forty  and  two  "  prophetic  months  (v.  3),  the  prophesying 
of  the  witnesses  in  sackcloth  "  a  thousand  two  hundred  and 
three-score  "  prophetic  days,  the  fleeing  of  the  woman  into 
the  wilderness  (12  :  6),  where  she  was  to  be  fed  for  the 
same  period,  or  (v.  14^  nourished  for  a  time  and  times,  and 
half  a  time,  from  the  face  of  the  serpent,  the  "  forty  and 
two  months  "  (13  :  5)  that  it  was  to  be  given  to  the  blas- 
phemous mouth  of  the  beast  to  speak  blasphemy,  the  "  five 


OBSCURE   TO   THE    EARLY    CHRISTIANS.  23 

months"  (9 :  5)  that  the  locusts  "weie  to  torment  men,  and 
(v.  15)  the  "hour  and  a  day,  and  a  mouth,  and  a  year," 
in  Avhich  they  -were  to  have  po\Yer  to  kill.  And  the  whole 
series  closes  Avith  the  sj^mbol  of  the  destruction  of  Baby- 
lon, the  battle  of  Armageddon,  the  new  heavens  and  new 
earth,  the  descent  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  "the  tabernacle  of  God  with  men." 


INDIFFERENCE    TO    PROPHECY    DISPLEASING    TO 
JEHOVAH. 

Such  prophecies  being  committed  to  the  church,  for  its 
instruction  an<l  profit,  to  denominate  thcni  a  sealed  book,  to 
declare  their  study  unprofitable,  or  to  affirm  that  they  are 
incapable  of  being  understood,  is  to  deny  that  they  were 
given  for  the  church's  edification,  or  that  there  is  a  l)lessing 
pronounced  on  those  who  read  and  keep  them :  and  it  dis- 
honors God,  by  imputing  to  llim  communications  unintelli- 
gible by  those  to  whom  the3'^  are  addressed.  Said  the 
apostle,  Heb.  12  :  25,  "  See  that  ye  refuse  not  Him  that 
speakcth ;  for  if  they  escaped  not  who  refused  Him  that 
spake  on  earth,  much  more  shall  not  we  escape  if  we  turn 
away  from  Him  that  spcaketh  from  heaven." 


THE  PROPHETIC  PERIODS  NECESSARILY  OBSCURE  TO 
THE  EARLY  CHRISTIANS. 

The  canon  of  Scripture  being  closed  with  the  book  of 
Revelation,  and  important  portions  of  the  Old  Testament 
predictions  being  a  sealed  book  till  a  "time"  then  in  the 
distant  future,  the  views  which  then  prevailed,  respecting 
the  meaning  of  the  symbolic  prophecies  and  the  nearness 
of  the  end,  were  necessarily  somewhat  indistinct  and  im- 
perfect. 

The  symbolic  nature  of  the  prophetic  periods  was  not 
perceived  by  the  early  Christians, —  with  the  exception  of 
the  seventy  weeks  of  the  9th  ch.  of  Daniel,  which  were 
regarded  as  weeks  of  years,  both  by  Jews  and  Christians.* 

*  Prof.  Bu.sh,  jn  speaking  of  the  year-day  calculations  of  prophecy. 
Bays  :  "It  is  the  solution  naturally  arising  from  the  construction  put  ia 
all  ages  upon  the  oracle  of  Daniel,  respecting  the  seventy  weeks,  which 


24  THE    TIME    OF    THE   END. 

The  prophetic  "days"  and  "times"  were  not  supposed 
to  be  other  than  literal  denominations  of  time.  The  proph- 
ecies of  Daniel  that  had  been  fulfilled  prior  to  the  time 
of  Josephus,  are  interpreted  by  him  (in  his  Antiquities, 
B.  X.,  ch.  xi.,  §  7)  in  harmony  with  the  views  of  modern 
expositors.  But,  in  attempting  to  give  the  significance  of 
the  2300  days, —  a  designation  of  time  then  sealed  up  from 
the  vulgar  gaze, —  he  applies  them  to  the  times  of  Anti- 
ochus  Epiphanus;  and,  to  make  them  fit,  he  unjustifiably 
changes  them  to  "one  thousand  two  hundred  and  ninety- 
six."  And  previous  to  the  Protestant  Reformation,  when  the 
seal  from  the  prophecies  began  gradually  to  be  removed, 
no  one  interpreted  the  prophetic  "days"  or  "times"  as 
symbolic  periods;*  for  the  time  had  not  come  when  their 
significancy  was  to  be  appreciated.  Josephus  doubtless  ex- 
pressed the  opinion  then  j^revalent  among  the  Jews ;  and, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  the  apostate  Papal  church  still 
holds  the  same  views,  and  some  Protestant  writers,  who 
have  labored  to  prove  the  end  in  the  distant  future,  have 
followed  Josephus  in  applying  that  prophecy  to  Antiochus  — 
though  some  of  them  have  considered  the  2300  days  as  so 
many  whole,  and  some  as  so  many  half  days ;  f  but  in  so 
doing,  have  acknowledged  that  they  departed  from  the  com- 
mon Protestant  interpretation. 


SIX    THOUSAISTD   YEARS,    THE    EXPECTED    PERIOD    OP 
THE  WORLD'S  DURATION. 

All  the  early  Christian  Fathers  were  Millenarians,  and 
expected  the  advent  at  the  termination  of  6000  years  from 

by  Jews  and  Christians  have  been  interpreted  weeks  of  years;  on  the 
principle  of  a  day  standing  for  a  year.  This  fact  is  obvious  from  the 
Rabbinical  Avriters  en  masse,  where  they  touch  upon  the  subject ;  and 
Eusebius  tells  us  (Dem.  Evang.,  b.  viii.,  p.  258  —  Ed.  Steph.)  that  this 
interpretation  in  his  day  was  generally,  if  not  universally',  admitted."  — 
Hierophant,  v.  1,  p.  243.  They  are  not,  however,  in  the  prophecy  called 
weeks  of  days;  .".nd  might  naturally  be  understood  as  weeks  of  years, 
independent  of  the  year-day  calculation. 

*  "  It  does  not  appear  that  any  man  ever  interpreted  days  as  meaning 
years,  during  the  fiv&i  jifteen  centuries  of  the  Christian  era." in  Elu- 
cidation of  the  Prophecies,  by  Joseph  Tyso,  London  ed.,  1838,  p.  68. 

t  The  Rev.  Doctors  Dowling  and  Chase  interpreted  them  as  half-days, 
or  1150  days,  while  Prof.  Stuart  regarded  them  as  2300  literal  days. 


THE   SIX   TnOUSAND   YEARS.  25 

the  creation ;  which,  according  to  the  Septuagint  mundane 
chronology,  woukl  terminate  about  A.  D.  500  to  A.  D.  550. 
And  encircling  this  epoch,  was  the  first  great  period  of 
expccfcition  and  disappointment  for  the  church,  respecting 
the  second  advent. 

The  ancient  Jcavs  had  a  tradition  that  the  world  would 
last  for  the  period  just  named ;  and  the  learned  Gregory, 
of  Oxford,  gives  their  argument,  namely  : 

"Because  God  was  six  days  about  the  creation,  and  a 
thousand  years  Avith  Ilim  are  but  as  one  day  (Ps.  90  :  4), 
therefore,  after  six  days,  that  is,  after  6000  years  duration 
of  the  world,  there  shall  be  a  seventh  day,  or  millenary 
sabl)ath  of  rest." 

JNIcnasse,  an  ancient  Jewish  Rabbi,  thus  expressed  his 
belief : 

"As  for  my  opinion,  I  think  that  after  six  thousand 
years  the  world  shall  be  destroyed,  upon  one  certain  day, 
or  in  one  hour ;  that  the  arches  of  heaven  shall  make  a 
stand,  as  immovable ;  that  there  will  be  no  more  gcnei'a- 
tion  or  corruption ;  and  all  things  by  the  resurrection  shall 
be  renovated,  and  returned  to  a  better  condition." 

Mcnasse  also  assures  us  that  "this,  out  of  doubt,  is  the 
opinion  of  the  most  learned  Abcn  Ezra,"  who  looked  for  it 
in  the  new  earth  of  Isa.  65  :  17. 

Bishop  Russell.  Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in 
the  Scottish  Episcopal  Church,  says,  in  his  "Discourse  on 
the  Millennium"  : 

"  The  opinion  of  the  Jews  on  this  head  may  be  gathered 
from  the  statement  of  one  of  their  Rabbins,  who  said, 
'  The  world  endures  GOOO  years,  and  in  the  thousand,  or 
millennium,  that  follows,  the  enemies  of  God  would  be  de- 
stroyed.' It  was  in  like  manner  a  tradition  of  the  house  of 
Elias,  a  holy  man  who  lived  about  200  years  before  Christ, 
that  the  world  was  to  endure  6000  years,  and  that  the 
righteous,  Avhora  God  should  raise  up,  would  not  be  turned 
again  to  dust." 

The  learned  Joseph  Mcde,  called  the  "illustrious  Mede," 
says  that  the  Cabbalists  call  the  seventh  millennium  "the 
great  day  of  judgment,"  because  then  they  think  God  will 
judge  the  souls  of  all  men ;  and  he  quotes  many  of  their 
Rabbins  to  show  that  they  defined  the  day  of  judgment  a 
3 


26  THE    TIME    OF   THE   END. 

"millennium,"  or  a  thousand  years,  and  connected  it  with 
the  resurrection  and  Messiahs  kingdom.  For  example, 
David  Kimchi,  on  Isa.  55:  5,  says:  "The  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  is  essential  to  the  faith ;  for  such  only  as 
observe  the  Sabbath  confess  that  the  earth  -will  be  renewed : 
because  He  Avho  created  it  out  of  nothing  will  renew  it. 
As  if  he  who  observes  the  holy  Sabbath  testifies  his  f\iith 
in  the  great  Sabbath,  in  which  God  will  renew  the  world." 

This  ancient  opinion  Avas  not  confined  to  the  Jews. 
Bishop  Russell  states  that  "  Theopompus,  who  flourished 
340  years  before  Christ,  relates  that  the  Persian  Magi 
taught  that  the  present  state  of  things  would  continue  6000 
years ;  after  wliich  hades ^  or  death,  would  be  destroyed, 
and  men  would  live  happy,"  &c.  This  early  tradition  was 
found  also  in  the  Sibylline  Oracles,  and  in  Hesiod ;  in  the 
writings  of  Darius  Hystaspes, —  the  old  king  of  the  Medes 
— derived  probably  from  the  Magi, — and  in  Hermes;  Tris- 
megistus  among  the  Egyptians.  —  Dii.  Hales. 

This  opinion,  however  well  formed,  enabled  the  unbe- 
lieving Jews  to  argue,  as  Ephraim  Cyrus  says  they  did, 
that  the  time  for  the  appearing  of  the  Messiah  had  not 
come: — failing,  as  they  did,  to  distinguish  between  His  first 
coming  in  humiliation,  and  His  coming  in  glory  that  was  to 
follow. 

The  early  Christian  Fathers  also  held  to  the  same  view 
respecting  the  period  of  the  world's  duration.  In  the 
Epistle  of  Barnabas  we  read  : 

"  In  six  thousand  years  the  Lord  will  bring  all  things 
to  an  end,  .  .  .  Avhen  inicjuity  shall  be  no  more,  all  things 
being  renewed  by  the  Lord." 

Irenasus,  Bishop  of  Lyons,  A.  D.  178,  wrote : 

"  In  as  many  days  as  this  world  was  made,  in  so  many 
thousand  years  it  is  perfected ;  for  if  the  day  of  the  Lord 
be  as  it  were  a  1000  years,  and  in  six  days  those  things 
that  are  made  were  finished,  it  is  manifest  that  the  perfect- 
ing of  those  things  is  in  the  6000  years,  when  Antichrist, 
reigning  1260  days,  shall  have  wasted  all  things  in  the  world. 
.  .  ,  Then  shall  the  Lord  come  from  heaven  in  the  clouds, 
with  the  glory  of  His  Father." 

Hippolytus  is  said  by  Photius  to  have  thus  reasoned,  and 
so  to  have  fixed  Antichrist's  coming  and  the  world's  end 
about  A.D.  500.  —  See  Lardneii,  ii.  425. 


FATIIEllS    ALL    MILLENARIANS.  27 

• _ 

Cyprian,  avIio  -was  martyred  A.  D.  258,  in  his  De  Exhort., 
&c.,  says:  "Now  six  thousand  years  are  nearly  com- 
pleted." And  then  he  speaks  of  the  world's  seven  days  of 
creation  and  rest,  as  typifying  seven  millenniums. 

And  Lactantius,  Book  of  Divine  Instit.,  A.  D.  310, 
says: 

"Let  philosophers  know,  who  number  thousands  of 
years,  ages  since  the  beginning  of  the  world,  that  tlic  GOOO 
years  is  not  yet  concluded  or  ended.  But,  that  number 
being  fulfilled,  of  necessity  there  must  be  an  end,  and  the 
state  of  human  things  must  be  transformed  into  that  which 
is  better." 

THE  CAUSE  OF  THEIB  SUPPOSING  THE  END  TO  BE 

NEAR. 

The  three  and  a  half  times  of  Daniel,  we  learn  by  Justin 
Martyr,  in  his  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  were  understood  by 
the  Jews  to  denote  three  and  a  half  centuries ;  but  Justin 
thought  them  three  and  a  half  literal  years. 

The  "  time"  of  the  end  not  having  come  when  the  seal 
was  to  be  removed  from  the  words  of  Daniel,  the  early 
Christians  argued  that  the  end  was  near.  "For  nothing, 
they  reasoned,"  says  Mr.  Elliott,  "prevented  Antichrist's 
development  but  the  intervention  of  the  Roman  Empire  in 
its  then  existing  state,  which  they  thouglit  would  pass  away 
speedily ;  and  that  then  Antichrist's  predicted  short-lived 
reign,  and  his  persecution  of  but  three  and  a  half  years, 
would  follow,  and  be  succeeded  instantly  by  Christ's  second 
coming  and  the  consummation.  Not  to  add  that  certain 
considerations,  too,  of  the  age  of  the  world,  as  if  not  far 
from  6000  years,  began  now  to  enter  into  their  reasonings; 
and  confirmed  them  in  the  idea  that  the  end  was  near."  — 
II0U.E.  Apoc,  vol.  i.,  p.  21G,  ed.  1851. 

THE  CHRISTIAN  FATHEHS  ALL  MILLENARIANS. 

In  connection  with  the  time  —  which  was  the  portion  of 
prophecy  that  was  sealed  —  the  early  church  looked  to  the 
renewed  earth  as  the  residence  of  the  redeemed, —  draAving 
their  conclusions  from  the  teachings  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments. 


28  THE  TIME    OE   THE   END. 

_^ . ♦_ 


Papias,  a  disciple  of  St.  John,  is  quoted  bj  Eusebius, 
who  opposed  the  doctrine,  as  teaching  that,  '"after  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  kingdom  of  Christ  shall  be 
established  on  this  earth."  And  the  same  father  is  quoted 
hy  Jerome,  another  opposcr,  as  saying  that  "  he  had  the 
apostles  for  his  authors ;  and  that  he  considered  Avhat  An- 
drew, -svhat  Peter  said,  what  Philip,  what  Thomas  said,  and 
other  disciples  of  the  Lord." 

Poly  carp  was  another  of  John's  disciples ;  and  Irenteus 
testifies,  in  an  epistle  to  Florinus,  that  he  had  seen  Poly- 
carp,  '-who  related  his  conversation  with  John,  and  others 
who  had  seen  the  Lord,  and  how  he  related  their  sayings, 
and  the  things  he  had  heard  of  them  concerning  the  Lord, 
both  concerning  his  miracles  and  doctrine,  as  he  had  re- 
ceived them  from  the  Lord  of  Life ;  all  of  which  Polycarp 
related  agreeably  to  the  Scriptures."  Following  such  a 
teacher,  L'cnajus  taught  that  at  the  resurrection  of  the  just 
the  meek  should  inherit  the  earth ;  and  that  then  would 
be  fulfilled  the  promise  that  God  made  to  Abraham. 

Justin  Martyr,  born  A.  D.  89,  says  that  "A  certain 
man  among  us,  whose  name  is  John,  being  one  of  the  twelve 
apostles  of  Christ,  in  that  revelation  which  was  shown  him 
prophesied  that  those  who  believe  in  our  Christ  shall  fulfil 
a  thousand  years  at  Jerusalem."  And  he  afiirms  that 
"all  who  were  accounted  orthodox  so  believed." 

THE  DECLIIfE  OF  MHiLENAKIAN"  VIEWS. 

Mosheim,  and  all  writers  of  authority,  admit  that  pre- 
vious to  Origen, —  who  introduced  the  mystical  system  of 
interpretation  about  the  middle  of  the  third  century, —  this 
doctrine  had  met  with  no  opposition.  Origen  taught  that 
"the  Scriptures  are  of  little  use  if  we  understand  them  as 
they  are  written."  Dr.  Milner  says  of  him,  "No  man, 
not  altogether  unsound  and  hypocritical,  ever  injured  the 
church  of  Christ  more  than  Origen  did.  From  the  fanciful 
mode  of  allegory  introduced  by  him,  uncontrolled  by  scrip- 
tural rule  and  order,  arose  a  vitiated  method  of  commenting 
on  the  Scriptures;"  and.  "it  was  not  till  the  days  of  Lu- 
ther and  jNIelancthon  that  this  evil  was  fairly  and  successfully 
opposed."     Dr.  Mosheim  says  of  the  Millennium  :   "Now, 


church's  apostasy.  29 

its  credit  began  to  decline,  principally  through  the  influ- 
ence and  authority  of  Origen,  -who  opposed  it  with  the 
greatest  -warmth,  because  it  was  incompatible  with  some  of 
his  favorite  sentiments."' 


THE  EXPECTATION  OF   THE   CHURCH  NEVER  CAME  TO 
A  CRISIS. 

The  faith  of  the  church,  "in  its  earliest  and  purest  age," 
as  writers  denominate  it,  that  the  consummation  was  then 
imminent,  was  never  permitted  to  come  to  a  crisis.  A  dif- 
ferent belief  began  to  prevail  before  the  arrival  of  their 
supposed  epoch  for  the  end  of  6000  years.  And  not  only 
so,  but  the  ten  years  of  Diocletian's  bloody  persecution  — 
the  bloodiest  that  the  church  encountered  —  was  followed 
by  the  conversion  of  Constantino  to  Christianity,  in  A.  D. 
312.  He  undertook  to  remodel  the  church  in  conformity 
to  the  government  of  the  state,  and  endowed  it  with  wealth 
and  worldly  honors.  To  profess  Christianity,  then,  no 
longer  subjected  one  to  persecution  or  reproach,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  became  the  road  to  political  preferment  and 
wealth.  As  a  consequence,  vast  numbers  of  pagans  pro- 
fessed conversion  to  the  popular  religion,  and  enrolled  their 
names  in  the  church  records.  And,  instead  of  longer  look- 
ing for  the  coming  kingdom,  multitudes  actually  supposed 
that  the  long-predicted  kingdom  of  God  was  then  being 
established,  by  the  increased  splendor,  popularity  and  out- 
ward peace,  of  the  church.  The  state  of  things  was  such 
that  Eus'^bius  says,  it  looked  like  "the  very  image  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ;"  and  he  goes  on  to  argue  that  then 
were  fulfilled  the  predictions  that  had  before  been  applied 
to  the  restored  earth. 


THE  CHURCH  BECAME  APOSTATE. 

Gratian  III,  in  378,  was  the  first  of  the  professed  Chris- 
tian emperors  who  refused  the  pontifical  robe  —  the  oflfico 
of  Sovereign  Pontiff,  or  Pagan  High  Priest,  which  was 
instituted  by  Numa,  having  been  assumed  by  Augustus  and 
his  successors,  so  as  to  unite  in  one  head  the  civil  and  reli- 
gious powers  of  the  empire.  The  office  being  thus  vacant, 
3* 


30  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

Damasus,'  the  Bishop  or  Pope  of  Rome,  in  a.  d.  378,  w^s 
"declared  Pontifex  Maximus,"  and  made  "sole  judge  in 
religious  matters."  When  Damasus  was  made  Bishop  or 
Pope  of  Rome,  in  366, —  twenty-t\Y0  years  previous,  —  it 
■was  after  a  close  contest  with  Urcinus,  in  Avhich  one  hun- 
dred and  sixty  of  the  followers  of  the  latter  were  killed. 
He  was  originally  a  monk,  from  Mt.  Carmel ;  and,  in  the 
days  of  Vespasian,  the  Carmelites  worshipped  Maia,  an  old 
Babylonian  deity,  supposed  by  them  to  be  the  "  Mother  of 
the  gods."  On  embracing  Christianity,  they  transferred 
their  homage  from  her  to  the  Virgin  Mary,  Avhom  they  de- 
nominated the  "  Mother  of  God  ;  "  and  in  the  place  of  dei- 
fied souls  of  the  departed,  they  introduced  the  saints  of  the 
church  as  objects  of  supplication  and  thanksgiving, —  thus 
continuing  their  old  worship  under  new  names. 

THE  MILLEWAKIANS  EXPELLED  FROM  THE  PAPAL 
CHURCH. 

"  We  find  that,  to  carry  out  the  worship  of  '  the  Mother 
of  the  gods,'  it  became  necessary  to  expel  the  orthodox 
from  the  church.  Hence  we  find  Jerome,  Damasus,  Ba- 
sil, and  all  their  friar  associates,  now  teaching  a  merely 
spiritual  heaven  of  eternal  idleness,  precisely  similar  to 
that  of  the  mysteries  of  Eleusis,  instead  of  a  regenerated 
universe  where  men  should  labor  for  the  glory  of  their 
Lord.  The  orthodox  opposed.  They  declared  their  hope 
that  the  Lord  looidd  return  and  reign.  Damasus  decided 
that  the  reign  of  the  saints  had  begun  already.  He  now 
formally  declared  the  Millenarians  heretical.  He  expelled 
them  from  the  church.  His  courts  everywhere  decided 
against  them.  None  were  left,  save  those  that  worshipped 
the  Virgin  Queen  and  desired  not  that  Christ  would  return 
in  the  flesh.  Boodhism  and  the  Babylonian  worship  took 
the  place  of  Christianity,  and  the  old  Chaldean  creed 
became  the  established  religion  of  the  people,  as  it  had  for 
six  centuries  been  the  secret  faith  of  the  aristocracy  of 
Rome." — Lon.  Quar.  Jour,  of  Projih.,  v.  4,  p.  332. 


AN    ERRONEOUS    EXPECTATION.  31 


WHILE  THE  BRIDEGROOM  TARRIED    THEY  ALL  SLUM- 
BERED   AND    SLEPT. 

With  this  apostasy,  wliich  Paul  (2  Th.  2)  had  predicted 
must  first  come,  the  day  of  the  Lord,  Avith  here  and  there 
individual  exceptions,  ceased  to  be  looked  upon  as  imminent. 
Now,  instead  of,  as  in  apostolic  times  (1  Th.  1 :  9,  10), 
being  "  turned  to  God  from  idols  to  serve  the  living  and 
true  God,  and  to  vrait  for  His  Son  from  heaven,*'  they  re- 
garded that  as  an  event  with  which  they  had  little  personal 
interest.  The  epoch,  incorrectly  indicated  by  the  septuagint 
chronology  as  the  end  of  the  sixth  millenary,  passed,  and  so 
much  of  the  parable  (Matt.  25  :  1 — 13)  of  virgins  taking 
their  lamps  and  going  forth  to  meet  the  bridegroom,  as  was 
embraced  in  v.  5,  "  While  the  bridegroom  tarried  they  all 
slumbered  and  slept,"  had  its  similitude  in  the  long  forget- 
fulness  of  the  professed  church,  respecting  the  coming  of 
the  Lord  and  King,  which  prevailed  till  the  dawn  of  the 
Protestant  Reformation. 

ERRONEOUS  EXPECTATION  IN  THE  TENTH  CENTURY. 

It  is  true  that,  in  the  tenth  century,  a  belief  prevailed  re- 
specting the  nearness  of  the  judgment,  based  on  a  mistaken 
interpretation  of  the  one  thousand  years  in  Rev.  20  :  2 — 4, 
that  the  time  had  arrived  for  Satan  to  be  loosed  from  his 
prison,  and  the  world  to  end ;  but  that  expectation  elicited 
only  the  fear  and  terror  of  those  who  thus  believed,  who 
looked  to  the  coming  of  the  Lord  with  dread,  and  not  as  an 
event  ardently  to  be  hoped  for.     Mosheim  says : 

"  Among  those  opinions,  which  so  frequently  dishonored 
the  Latin  church,  and  produced  from  time  to  time  such 
violent  agitations,  none  occasioned  such  a  general  panic,  or 
such  dreadful  impressions  of  terror  or  dismay,  as  a  notion 
that  now  prevailed  of  tlie  immediate  approach  of  the  day  of 
judgment.  This  notion,  which  took  its  rise  from  a  remark- 
able passage  in  the  Revelations  of  St.  John,  and  had  been 
entertained  by  some  doctors  in  the  preceding  century,  was 
advanced  publicly  by  many  at  this  time ;  and,  spreading 
itself  with  an  amazing  rapidity  through  the  European  prov- 
inces, it  threw  them    into  the    deepest   consternation    and 


32  -      THE   TIME    OF    THE    END. 

anguish  ;  for  they  imagined  that  St.  John  had  clearly  fore- 
told that,  after  a  thousand  years  fiom  the  hirth  of  Christ, 
Satan  was  to  be  let  loose  fiom  his  |ji'ison  ;  that  Antichrist 
was  to  come,  and  the  conflagration  and  destruction  of  the 
world  were  to  follow  these  great  and  terrible  events.  Hence 
prodigious  numbers  of  people  abandoned  all  their  civil  con- 
nections and  their  parental  relations,  and,  giving  over  to  the 
churches  or  monasteries  all  their  lands,  treasures,  and 
worldly  effects,  repaired  with  the  utmost  precipitation  to 
Palestine,  where  they  imagined  that  Christ  would  descend 
from  heaven  to  judge  the  world.  Others  devoted  them- 
selves by  a  solemn  and  voluntary  oath  to  the  service  of  the 
churches,  convents,  and  priesthood,  whose  slaves  they  be- 
came in  the  most  rigorous  sense  of  that  word,  performing 
daily  their  heavy  tasks  ;  and  all  this  from  a  notion  that  the 
Supreme  Judge  would  diminish  the  severity  of  their  sen- 
tence, and  look  upon  them  with  a  more  flivorable  and  pro- 
pitious eye,  on  account  of  their  having  made  themselves  the 
slaves  of  his  ministers.  When  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  or 
moon  happened  to  be  visible,  the  cities  Avere  deserted,  and 
their  miserable  inhabitants  fled  for  refuge  to  deep  caverns, 
and  hid  themselves  among  the  craggy  rocks,  and  under  the 
bending  summits  of  steep  mountains.  The  opulent  attempted 
to  bribe  the  Deity,  and  the  saintly  tribe,  by  rich  donations 
conferred  upon  the  sacerdotal  and  monastic  orders,  who  were 
regarded  as  the  immediate  vicegerents  of  Heaven.  In  many 
places,  temples,  palaces,  and  noble  edifices,  both  public  and 
private,  were  suffered  to  decay,  and  were  even  deliberately 
pulled  down,  from  a  notion  that  they  were  no  longer  of  any 
use,  since  the  final  dissolution  of  all  things  approached.  In 
a  word,  no  language  is  sufficient  to  express  the  confusion 
and  despair  that  tormented  the  minds  of  miserable  mortals 
upon  this  occasion.  This  general  delusion  was,  indeed, 
opposed  and  combated  by  the  discerning  few,  who  endeav- 
ored to  dispel  these  groundless  terrors,  and  to  efface  the 
notion  from  Avhich  they  arose,  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 
But  their  attempts  were  ineffectual ;  nor  could  the  dreadful 
apprehensions  of  the  superrftitious  multitude  be  entirely  re- 
moved before  the  conclusion  of  this  century.  Then,  Avhen 
they  saw  that  the  dreaded  period  had  passed  without  the 
arrival  of  any  great  calamity,  they  began  to  understand 


THE    OPEN    BOOK.  33 


that  St.  John  had  not  really  foretold  what  they  so  much 
feared." 

The  nature  of  this  expectation  was  so  unlike  that  of  vir- 
gins wishing  to  meet  the  coming  of  the  bridegroom,  and  the 
subjects  of  it  were  so  apostate  and  corrupt,  that  it  can  hardly 
be  considered  as  a  looking  for  His  return  on  the  part  of 
Christ's  church,  and,  therefore,  it  was  no  interregnum  to 
the  slumbering  and  sleeping  of  the  virgins,  as  illustrated  by 
the  parable. 

THE   EPOCH   OF   TECE   REFORMATION". 

We  now  come  down  to  the  period  in  which  Christianity 
was  revived  by  the  Protestant  Keformation.  and  which  may 
not  be  inappropriately  denominated  "  the  time  of  the  end." 

In  1520  Luther  and  his  friends  were  excommunicated 
from  the  Papal  church ;  and  Luther,  on  his  part,  severed 
all  connection  with  the  apostasy  by  publicly  burning  the  bull 
of  excommunication  and  the  decretals  of  the  Papal  canon  at 
Wittenberg,  on  the  10th  of  December  of  the  same  year. 
Li  the  previous  century  the  art  of  printing  with  movable 
types  had  been  invented,  and  in  1455  the  Latin  Bible  was 
printed.  A  copy  of  one  of  these  was  discovered  by  Luther, 
about  1503,  in  the  library  of  the  University  of  Erfurt, 
which  caused  him  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  study  of 
divinity;  and  in  1521,  the  year  after  he  and  his  followers 
were  separated  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  he  commenced  its 
translation  into  German,  and  completed  it  in  1534.  Then 
was  the  Book  of  books  given  to  the  common  people  in  a 
language  that  they  could  understand,  and  they  were  enabled, 
for  the  first  time,  to  read  those  prophecies  which  W'Cre  to  bo 
closed  up  and  sealed  till  the  time  of  the  end,  and  Avhich 
had  been  effectually  hidden  from  all  but  a  learned  few,  by 
being  shrouded  in  an  unintelligible  dialect. 

THE  SYMBOL  OF  THE  OPEN  BOOK. 

This  event,  and  these  pioneers  of  the  Refonnation,  were 
most  beautifully  symbolized,  in  Rev.  10 :  1 — 3,  by  an 
angel  holding  "in  his  hand  a  little  book,  open,^'  and  cry- 
ing "  with  a  loud  voice,  as  when  a  lion  roareth."    No  longer 


34  THE   TIME   OF   THE    EXD. 


were  the  Scriptures  to  be  a  closed  or  sealed  book.  From 
that  epoch,  many  have  continued  to  run  to  and  fro  till  the 
present  time,  and  a  knowled<^e  of  the  Scriptures,  of  correct 
principles  of  interpretation,  of  the  application  of  history  to 
prophecy,  and  of  the  f2;reat  facts  in  God's  providence,  ha3 
continued  to  increase  till  the  present  time. 

LUTHER'S   FIKST   PROPHETIC   DISCOVERY. 

The  first  dawn  of  light  that  broke  on  Luther s  mind,  as 
indicative  of  the  place  occupied  by  the  Reformation  in  the 
jirophetic  calendar,  was  the  discovery  that  the  Papacy  was 
the  Antichrist  and  Man  of  Sin.  S3'mbolizcd  by  the  little 
horn  of  the  7th  chap,  of  Daniel.  In  answer  to  the  Pope's 
bull  of  excommunication  in  1520.  he  said,  "  Sure  that  our 
Lord  Jesus  yet  liveth  and  reigneth,  I  fear  not  thousands  of 
Popes.  0,  that  God  may  at  length  visit  us,  and  cause  to 
shine  forth  the  glory  of  Christ's  coming,  wherewith  to  de- 
stroy that  Man  of  Sin  !  "  (Merle  D'Aub.,  ii.  1G6.)  The 
next  year  he  remonstrated  with  Staupitz  against  abandon- 
ing the  Reformation,  by  reference  to  the  sure  and  advancing 
fulfilment  of  Daniel's  prophecy  in  the  progress  of  events. 
(See  Elliott's  Apoc,  v.  ii.,  p.  133.)  But  the  mysteiy  in 
Avhich  the  prophetic  numbers  had  been  shrouded  still  balHed 
him  by  its  obscurity. 

LUTHER'S   VZEV?"   OF   THE   mSARNESS    OF    THE    END. 

Says  Mr.  Elliott.  "At  one  time,  in  his  conjectures  about 
the  destined  epoch  of  the  consummation,  he  fancied  that  it 
might  be  less  than  twenty  years  oif,*  at  another  deprecated 

*  "  After  saying,  '  I  cannot  define  this  prophecy,  a  time,  times,  and  half 
a  time,'  he  throws  out  the  idea  (a  f  luciful  one)  that,  possibly,  its  second- 
ary application  to  Antichrist  (the  primary  being  to  Jintiochus  Epipha- 
nes)  miglit  be  on  tlie  scale  of  a  tune  equalling  the  thirty  years  of  our 
Lord's  life  :  in  which  case,  three  and  one  half  times  would  equal  one 
hundred  and  five  years  ;  and,  reckoned  from  the  Turks'  taking  of  Con- 
stantinople (the  Turks  being  the  Eastern  Antichrist),  end  at  A.  D.  1558. 
'God  knoweth.'  lb.,  ch.  xxiii.  (ii.  3,  o4o.) — Another  idea  he  threw 
out  was,  that  perhaps  the  Apocalyptic  number  of  the  beast,  66G,  might 
mean  the  number  of  years  of  established  Papal  power  ;  which,  measured 
from  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  would  come  nearly  down  to  the  Reforma- 
tion,    (ii.  12.) 


VIEW    OF   MELANCTHON.  85 

the  extension  of  the  interval  to  fifty  years,*  and  at  others 
mentioned  two  hundred,  or  three  hundred,  as  the  furthest 
limit  that  entered  his  imagination,!  yet  the  prevalent  idea 
of  its  being  near  at  hand  remained  with  him  even  to  his 
dying  hour,  and  Avas  a  perpetual  topic  of  consolation,  en- 
couragement, and  hope." 

VIEWS    OF    THE    REFORMERS    ON   THE    TIME    OF   THE 

END, 

The  reformers,  like  the  early  Christians,  based  their  views 
respecting  the  nearness  of  the  end  principally  on  the  sup- 
posed epoch  of  the  termination  of  si.\  thousand  years  from 
the  creation.  The  Scptuagint  Chronology  had  now  been 
relinquished,  and  tlie  Hebrew  had  taken  its  place  ;  but,  in 
computing  the  latter,  tliey  made  the  age  of  the  world  some 
forty  3^ears  less  than  Usher  has  assigned  to  it,  and  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  less  than  may  be  easily  gath- 
ered from  the  letter  of  the  Hebrew  text.J 

Of  the  year-day  significance  of  the  Prophetic  Periods 
they  knew  little  :  but  faint  glimmers  of  light  in  support  of 
such  an  interpretation  seem  to  have  begun,  for  the  first 
time,  to  dawn  on  their  minds.  The  opinion  entertained 
respecting  the  end  may  be  illustrated  by  the 

VIEW    OF   MELANCTHON. 

Says  Mr.  Elliott:  "Like  Luther,  he  judged  that  fated 
end  to  be  near  and  imminent.  On  the  mystically-expressed 
periods  that  fixed  the  chronology  of  that  ending,  he  could 

*  "Xoar  the  time  of  his  de!it]i,  he  siviil  :  '  God  forbid  the  world  shoiiM 
last  fifty  years  loiiijor.  Let  him  cut  matters  short  with  his  last  juilgincnt. ' 
Table  Talk,  Michelet,  ii.  '210.  This  was  said  in  grief  at  the  unfaithful- 
ness of  many  Protestants. 

t  "' The  wickedness  of  mankind  is  .  .  .  risen  to  th.at  height,  that  I  dare 
presume  to  say  the  worlil  cannot  continue  many  hundred  years  longer.' 
lb.,  ch.  ix.  on  Sins.  (i.  2-')3.)  Again  (ii.  .So)  :  'In  about  two  hundred 
years  the  power  of  their  damnable  religion  will  be  broken.'  And  (i.  11)  : 
*  I  persuade  myself  verily  that  the  day  of  judgment  will  not  be  absent 
fiill  three  hundred  years  more,  .  .  .  God  will  not,  cannot,  sutler  this 
wicked  world  much  longer.'  Elsewhere,  in  the  Table  Talk,  lie  expresses 
bis  impression  of  their  liaving  come  down  to  the  vision  of  Christ  proceed- 
ing forth  on  the  White  Horse  (Apoc.  xix.),  in  the  Apocalyptic  Drama, 
(ii.  204.) 

tSee  Chronological  Table,  on  p.  113. 


36  THE   TIME   OF  THE   END. 

but  indeed  conjecture.  But,  in  commenting  on  the  passage 
that  contains  the  oath  involving  them,  of  the  man  that  stood 
clothed  in  linen  upon  the  waters  of  the  river,  after  strongly 
insisting  on  the  predicted  fact  of  there  rising  up  no  fifth 
earthly  nniversal  empire,  after  the  Roman  in  its  last  form 
under  the  little  horn,  but  only  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and 
his  saints,  he  thus  adverts  to  that  same  chronoloo;ical  aro;u- 
ment,  by  way  of  corroboration,  that  had  been  used  long 
before  him,  as  we  have  seen,  by  the  early  Christians ;  I 
mean  the  argument  from  the  seven  days  of  creation.  '  The 
words  of  the  prophet  Elias  should  be  marked  by  every  one, 
and  inscribed  upon  our  walls,  and  on  the  entrances  of  our 
houses.  Six  thousand  years  shall  this  world  stand,  and 
after  that  be  destroyed ;  two  thousand  years  without  the 
law  ;  two  thousand  years  under  the  law  of  Moses ;  two 
thousand  years  under  the  Messiah ;  and  if  any  of  these 
years  are  not  fulfilled,  they  Avill  be  shortened  (a  shortening 
intimated  by  Christ  also)  on  account  of  our  sins.'  Dr. 
Cox,  after  quoting  the  above  from  Melancthon's  Comment- 
ary, gives  the  following  manuscript  addition,  that  he  had 
found,  in  Melancthon's  hand,  in  Luther's  own  copy  of  the 
German  Bible  :  '  "Written  A.  D.  1557,  and  from  the  Crea- 
tion of  the  World  5519  :  from  which  number  we  may  be 
sure  that  this  aged  world  is  not  far  from  its  end.'  With 
his  calculation  he  conceived  that  Daniel's  numbers,  one 
thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty  days,  and  one  thousand 
three  hundred  and  thirty-five  days,  might,  on  the  year-day 
system,  be  made  well  to  coincide.  At  any  rate,  he  felt  per- 
suaded, alike  from  Daniel  and  St.  Paul,  that  the  reforma- 
tion and  protest  against  the  Papal  Antichrist,  just  accom- 
plished through  the  light  of  the  Gospel,  was  the  consumption 
and  conviction  of  that  enemy,  predicted  as  to  occur  just 
before  his  final  destruction  at  Christ's  coming.  And  upon 
this  prophecy  and  prospect  it  became  Christians,  he  thought, 
much  and  earnestly  to  dwell,  alike  for  consolation,  direc- 
tion, and  warning,  till  that  glorious  day  should  itself  burst 
upon  them." 

SHORTENTNG  OF  THE  TIME. 

While  six  thousand  years  from  creation   measured,  in 
their  minds,  the  world's  duration,  they  looked  for  a  shorten- 


THE    SIXTH    TRUMPET.  37 

ing  of  the  time,  for  the  elect's  sake,  based  on  the  words  of 
the  Saviour,  in  Matt.  24 :  22.  And,  therefore,  though 
several  hundred  years  might  be  needed  to  complete  the  full 
period  of  six  thousand  years,  tlicy  thought  the  advent  might 
anticipate  the  completion  of  it.     Thus  Mr.  Elliott  says,  of 

BISHOP   LATIMER, 

"  In  his  tliird  sermon  on  the  Lord's  prayer  ho  thus  cx- 
jircsscs  himself :  'Let  us  cry  to  God  day  and  night,  Most 
merciful  Father,  let  thy  kingdom  come  !  —  St.  Paul  saith, 
The  Lord  will  not  come  till  ihe  swerving  from  the  faith 
Cometh  (2  Thes.  2  :  3) ;  which  thing  is  already  done  and 
past.  Antichrist  is  known  throughout  all  the  world. 
Wherefore  the  day  is  not  far  off.'  — Tiicn,  reverting  to  the 
consideration  of  the  age  of  the  irorld,  the  same  as  Mclanc- 
thon,  Osiandor,  and  others  :  '  The  world  was  ordained  to 
endure,  as  all  learned  men  affirm,  .  .  .  six  thousand  years. 
Now,  of  that  number  there  be  past  five  thousand  five  hundred 
and  fifty-two  years,  so  that  there  is  no  more  left  but  four 
hundred  and  forty-eight  years.  Furthermore,  those  days 
shall  be  shortened  for  the  elect's  sake.  Therefore  all  those 
excellent  and  learned  men,  whom,  without  doubt,  God  hath 
sent  into  the  world  in  these  latter  days  to  give  the  world 
warning  '  (mark  here  Latimer's  testimony  to  the  univer- 
sality of  the  impression),  'do  gather  out  of  Scripture  that 
the  last  day  cannot  be  far  off.' — Yet,  again,  in  a  sermon 
on  the  second  Sunday  in  Advent,  after  noticing  the  expected 
shortening  of  the  days,  he  thus  strongly  expresses  the  same 
opinion  on  the  nearness  of  the  Second  Advent :  '  So  that, 
peradventure,  it  may  come  in  my  days,  old  as  I  am,  or  in 
my  children's  days.'  " 

THE   REFORMATION",    UNDER    THE    SIXTH    TRUMPET. 

The  symbol  of  the  open  Book,  already  referred  to,  of 
Rev.  10 :  2,  is  shown  in  the  Apocalyptic  symbols  between 
the  sounding  of  the  sixth  and  that  of  the  seventh  trumpets. 
And  the  discovery  by,  and  claim  of,  the  Reformers,  that 
they  were  living  under  the  sixth  trumpet,  is  a  remarkable 
fact  in  the  history  of  God's  providence.  Mr.  Elliott  illus- 
4 


38  THE    TIME    OF   TUE    END. 

trates  this  by  a  notice  of  Bishop  Bale,  of  Ossory,  Ireland. 
He  says : 

"  I  find  him,  in  that  valuable  and  interesting  work  en- 
titled Tlic  Image  of  Both  Churches,  published  in  1545, 
and  which  includes  in  it  an  Apocalyptic  commentary,  in 
sundry  points  applying  this  part  of  the  Apocalyptic  proph- 
ecy to  his  own  times.  On  Apoc.  10:  7,  the  verse  before  us, 
he  explains  the  time  then  current  as  the  sixth  age  of  the 
church,  and  speaks  of  tlie  seventh  trumpet  only  as  to  come : 
as  also  on  Apoc.  11:  15,  thus  drawing  his  line  between  the 
fulfilled  and  unfulfilled  ;  '  Thus  have  we  heere  what  is  done 
already,  and  what  is  yet  to  come  under  this  sixt  trompet- 
blowyng,  whereiinder  we  are  now :  which  al  belongeth  to 
the  second  wo.'  Again  on  Apoc.  20:  3,  after  recounting  a 
list  of  Christian  confessors,  Luther,  OEcolarapatius,  Zuingle, 
Melancthon,  Bucer,  Bullinger,  &c.,  by  whom  Antichrist's 
tyranny  had  been  disclosed,  he  says  :  '  I  doubt  not  but 
within  fewe  dayes  the  mightie  breath  of  Christ's  mouth, 
which  is  hys  lyving  gospell,  shall  utterly  destroye  him.' 

"  Further  respecting  this  'oath  that  all  shall  be  finished 
in  the  seventh  age  of  the  church,'  he  adds,  '  Necessary  it 
is  that  both  good  and  badde  know  it :  the  faithful  to  be 
assartened  that  their  finall  redemption  is  at  hande,  to  their 
consolation  ;  the  unfaithfull  to  have  knowledge  that  their 
judgment  is  not  farre  of,  that  they  may  repent  and  be  saved.' 
And  again  elsewhere  :  '  This  (the  Beast's)  will  be  the  rule 
of  this  present  age.  No  doubt  of  it.  Unto  kings  hath  not 
God  given  to  subdue  these  Beastes.  This  is  reserved  to 
the  victory  of  his  living  word.  Only  shall  the  breath  of 
his  mouth  destroy  them.  Let  the  faithfull  beleever,  con- 
sidering the  mischief  of  this  time,  appoint  himself  to  perse- 
cution, loss  of  goods,  exyle,  prison,  sorrow,  death,  for  the 
truthe's  sake ;  thinking  that  his  porcyon  is  in  the  land  of 
the  lyving.  For  now  are  the  perilous  dayes  under  the  voice 
of  the  sixie  trompe :  whereas  under  the  seventh  the  carnal 
church  shall  be  rejected.  Antichrist  overthrown,  and  the 
right  Israeli,  tokened  with  fayth,  peaceably  restored  into 
the  possession  of  God.'  " 


DISCOVERIES    rUOVinENTIALLY    REVF.ALEI).  39 

THESE    DISCOVERIES    PROVIDENTIALLY   REVEALED. 

Aftei'  the  presentation  of  the  evidences  already  quoted, 
with  others  that  arc  omitted,  Mr.  Elliott  adds  : 

"  Thus  have  I  shown,  as  I  proposed,  that,  from  imme- 
diately after  the  time  of  Luther's  and  Zuingle's  first  heaven- 
made  discovery  of  the  Antichrist  of  prophecy  being  none 
other  than  the  Koman  Poi)es,  there  was  also  im{)ressed  on 
them,  with  all  the  force  and  vividness  of  a  heavenly  com- 
munication, the  conviction  of  the  fated  time  being  near  at 
hand,  though  not,  indeed,  yet  come,  of  Antichrist's  final 
fore-doomed  destruction,  and  therewith  also  of  Christ's 
kingdom  coming,  and  Gods  great  prophetic  mystery  ending; 
just  agreeably  in  respect  of  time,  as  well  as  of  sul)ject-mat- 
ter,  with  the  iVngel's  oath  heard  at  this  epoch  in  the  xVpoca- 
lyptic  drama,  by  the  representative  man  St.  John:  —  fur- 
ther, that  the  impression  connected  itself,  in  the  case  of 
Luther  and  his  brother  German  reformers,  chiefly,  though 
by  no  means  only,  with  that  prophecy  of  Ddiiicl  that  was 
alluded  to  so  strikingly  by  the  Apocalyptic  Angel ;  with 
the  Angel's  oirn  oath  and  jiropliery.  in  the  case  of  the 
reformers  in  Swi/zcr/ft/id  and  Enfjland  (a  view  this  involv- 
ing the  great  prophetic  discovery  of  their  being  then  under 
the  si.xth  trumpet  in  the  evolution  of  the  Apocalyptic 
drama,  and  the  seventh  only  having  to  blow  in  order  to  the 
consummation)  :  finally,  that  the  impression  was  no  mere 
barren  piece  of  prophetic  chronological  information  imparted 
to  the  llcformers.  but  one  most  influential  and  practical ;  in 
fact,  precisely  that  which  was  best  suited  to  animate  them 
for  the  great  work  that  they  had  before  them,  l)oth  in  re- 
spect of  doing  and  of  sufFt-ring,  in  all  their  subsequent  con- 
flicts as  the  Lord's  witnesses,  with  Antichrist,  the  world, 
and  Satan.  Is  it  possible  that  we  can  help  seeing  and  ad- 
miring God's  goodness  and  wisdom  in  the  matter  ? 

"  Let  me  not  pass  from  this  subject  without  suggesting 
to  the  reader  that,  as  the  view  thus  communicated,  consid- 
ered as  a  propliet'ic  chronolorj'ical  discnrery.  was  all  but 
unprecedented  (it  being  then  more  distinctly  than  ever  be- 
fore revealed  to  Christians  whereabouts  they  were,  in  God's 
grand  prophetic  calendar  of  the  world's  histor}'),  so  the 
idea,  like  those  two  other'  heaven-revealed  ideas  about  Christ 


40  THE  TIME    OF   THE   END, 

and  Antichrist  that  preceded  it,  established  itself  perma- 
nently in  the  mind  of  Protestant  Christendom.  Parens, 
Mede,  Vitringa,  and  almost  all  the  host  of  other  principal 
expositors  that  followed  on  the  continent  and  in  England, 
kept  up  the  idea  as  certain,  throughout  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, that  the  Reformation  had  been  accomplished  under  the 
sixth  trumpet,  and  that  the  seventh  only  afterwards  yet 
remained  to  sound.  Indeed,  it  is  from  this,  as  from  a  point 
of  light,  that  the  chief  subsequent  Protestant  interpreters 
have  ever  since  gradually,  though  painfully  and  interrupt- 
edly, made  advances  towards  the  solution  of  other  parts  of 
the  Apocalyptic  prophecy ;  even  up  to  the  end  of  the  last 
century,  and  time  now  present." 

THE   ANABAPTISTS    AND    FIFTH    MONABCHY   MEN, 

Soon  after  the  commencement  of  the  Reformation,  a  re- 
proach was  brought  on  it  by  the  rise  of  the  Anabaptists  in 
Germany,  and  afterwards  by  the  appearance  of  the  Fifth 
Monarchy  men  in  England,  who  looked  for  the  immediate 
establishment  of  the  fifth  kingdom  spoken  of  by  Daniel 
(chaps.  2  and  7),  that  was  to  fill  the  whole  earth.  Their 
views,  however,  were  such  as  are  rejected  by  Millenarians ; 
and  were  strenuously  opposed  by  Luther,  and  other  leading 
Reformers.  Instead  of  looking  for  the  establishment  of  the 
kingdom  by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  earth  at  the  end  of  this  dispensation,  they  looked 
for  a  spiritual  kingdom,  that  was  to  comprise  only  the  saints 
who  were  living  in  the  Jlesh,  and  be  set  up  before  the  end 
of  the  world. 

THEIR  KINGDOM  A  TEMPORAL   ONE. 

Mosheim,  in  tracing  the  origin  of  the  Anabaptists,  shows 
that,  like  the  Papists  and  modei-n  Protestant  spiritualists, 
they  regarded  the  kingdom  of  Christ  as  the  visible  church 
which  He  establisLed  on  earth  ;  but  they  claimed  that  it 
was  to  be  ' '  an  aaaembly  of  true  and  real  saints,  and  ought, 
therefore,  to  be  inacces.sible  to  the  wicked  and  unrighteous." 
"  Some  of  them  imagined  that  the  time  was  now  come  in 
which  God  himself  was  to  dwell  with  his  servants  in  an  ex- 
traordinary manner,  by  celestial  succors,  and  to  establish 


THE   ANABAPTISTS.  41 


on  earth  a  kingdom  truly  spiritual  and  divine.  Others,  less 
sanguine  and  chimerical  in  their  expectations,  flattered 
themselves,  nevertheless,  with  the  fond  hope  of  the  approach 
of  that  happy  period,  in  which  the  restoration  of  the  church, 
which  had  been  so  long  expected  in  vain,  was  to  be  accom- 
plished, under  the  Divine  protection,  by  the  labors  and 
counsels  of  pious  and  eminent  men." — Church  Hist.,  v.  2, 
p.  128. 

The  numbers  of  these  rapidly  increased.  "  It  is,  how- 
ever, to  be  observed  that,  as  the  leaders  of  this  sect  had 
fallen  into  that  erroneous  and  chimerical  notion  that  the 
new  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  they  expected,  was  to  be  ex- 
empted from  every  kind  of  vice,  and  from  the  smallest 
degree  of  imperfection  and  corruption,  they  were  not  satis- 
fied with  the  plan  of  reformation  proposed  by  Luther.  They 
looked  upon  it  as  much  beneath  the  sublimity  of  their  views, 
and,  consequently,  undertook  a  more  perfect  reformation, 
or,  to  express  more  properly  their  visionary  enterprise,  they 
p7'oposcd  to  found  a  true  church,  entirely  spiritual,  and 
truly  divine.'' — lb.,  p.  129. 

The  Anabaptists  "were,  from  their  very  origin,  subdi- 
vided into  various  sects,  which  differed  from  each  other  in 
points  of  no  small  moment.  The  most  pernicious  faction  of 
all  those  that  composed  this  motley  multitude,  Avas  the  sect 
which  pretended  that  the  founders  of  the  new  and  perfect 
church,  already  mentioned,  were  under  the  direction  of  a 
divine  impulse,  and  were  armed  against  all  opposition  by 
the  power  of  working  miracles.  It  was  this  detestable  fac- 
tion that,  in  1521,  began  their  fanatical  work,  under  the 
guidance  of  Munzcr,  Stubner,  Storck,  and  other  leaders  of 
the  same  furious  complexion,  and  excited  the  most  unhappy 
tumults  and  commotions  in  Saxony  and  the  adjacent  coun- 
tries. They  employed  at  first  the  various  arts  of  persua- 
sion, in  order  to  propagate  their  doctrine.  They  preached, 
exhorted,  admonished,  and  reasoned,  in  a  manner  that  seemed 
proper  to  gain  the  multitude ;  and  related  a  great  number 
of  visions  and  revelations,  with  which  they  pretended  to 
have  been  favored  from  above.  But  when  they  saw  that 
these  methods  of  making  proselytes  were  not  attended  with 
such  rapid  success  as  they  fondly  expected,  and  that  the 
ministry  of  Luther,  and  other  eminent  reformers,  proved 
4* 


42  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END, 

detrimental  to  their  cause,  they  had  recourse  to  more  expe- 
ditious measures,  and  madlj  attempted  to  propag-ate  their 
fanatical  doctrine  by  force  of  arms.  jNIunzcr  and  iiis  asso- 
ciates assembled,  in  1525,  a  numerous  army,  chiefly  com- 
posed of  the  pea.sants  of  Suabia,  Thuringia,  Franconia,  and 
Saxony,  and,  at  the  head  of  this  credulous  and  deluded  rab- 
ble, declared  war  against  all  laws,  governments,  and  magis- 
trates of  every  kind,  under  the  chimerical  pretext  that 
Christ  was  now  to  take  the  reins  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
government  into  his  own  hands,  and  to  rule  alone  over  the 
nations.  But  this  seditious  crowd  was  routed  and  dispersed, 
without  much  difficulty,  by  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  other 
princes ;  Munzer  was  ignominiously  put  to  death,  and  his 
factious  counsellors  were  scattered  abroad  in  different 
places."— /6.,  p.  129. 

"A  handful  of  madmen,  who  had  gotten  into  their  heads 
the  visionary  notion  of  a  new  and  spiritual  kingdom^  soon 
to  be  established  in  an  extraordinary  manner,  formed  them- 
selves into  a  society,  under  the  guidance  of  a  few  illiterate 
leaders,  chosen  out  of  the  populace  ;  and  they  persuaded, 
not  only  the  ignorant  multitude,  but  even  several  among 
the  learned,  that  Munster  was  to  be  the  seat  of  this  new 
and  heavenly  Jerusalem,  whose  spiritual  dominion  was 
thence  to  be  propagated  to  all  parts  of  the  earth.  The  bold 
ringleaders  of  this  furious  tribe  were  John  Mathison,  John 
Bockhold,  a  tailor  of  Leyden,  one  Gerard,  with  some  others, 
whom  the  blind  rage  of  enthusiasm,  or  the  still  more  culpa- 
ble principles  of  sedition,  had  embarked  in  this  extravagant 
and  desperate  cause.  They  made  themselves  masters  of  the 
city  of  Munster,  deposed  the  magistrates,  and  committed  all 
the  enormous  crimes  and  ridiculous  follies  which  the  most 
perverse  and  infernal  imagination  could  suggest.  John 
Bockhold  was  proclaimed  king  and  legislator  of  this  new 
hierarchy  ;  but  his  reign  was  transitory,  and  his  end  deplor- 
able ;  for  Munster  was,  in  1536,  retaken,  after  a  long 
siege,  by  its  bishop  and  sovereign,  Count  Waldeck,  the 
New  Jerusalem  of  the  Anabaptists  destroyed,  and  its  mock 
monarch  punished  with  a  most  painful  and  ignominious 
death."— /6.,  p.  131. 

To  show  that  they  looked  only  for  a  carnal  empire,  Me- 
lancthon  said  :   ' '  The  true  church  will  always  suffer  perse- 


THE    TIME    NOT    THEN.  43 

cution  from  the  wicked  to  the  end  of  time,  and  in  the  church 
itself  the  apod  and  the  evil  will  continue  blended  together. 
It  is  necessary,  therefore,  to  reject  the  old  Jewish  error, 
revived  by  the  Anabaptists  of  this  age,  that  in  the  last 
times  the  church  will  become  a  worldly  empire,  in  which 
Christians  will  reign,  destroying  the  wicked  by  force  of 
arms,  and  seizing  upon  all  the  kingdoms  and  sovereignties 
of  the  earth." 

Similar,  in  expectation  and  belief,  were  the  Fifth  Mon- 
archy men,  Avho  arose  a  century  later  in  England,  who 
aimed  at  the  subversion  of  all  human  governments,  in  the 
expectation  that  Christ  was  immediately  to  appear  to  reign 
over  a  kingdom  of  men  in  the  flesh.  Neither  of  these  chissea 
looked  for  a  kingdom  in  which  the  departed  saints,  raised 
from  the  dead,  or  the  translated  living,  were  to  have  a  por- 
tion. The  vieAvs  taught  by  the  Anabaptists  were  so  dia- 
metrically opposed  to  the  views  of  Luther  and  his  coadjutors, 
that  their  discordant  teachings  were  not  inappropriately 
symbolized  when,  Rev.  10  :  3, 

«« SEVEN"   THUNDERS  UTTERED   THEIR  VOICES." 

These  thunder  utterances  were  in  immediate  connection 
■with  the  appearance  of  the  angel  with  the  open  book,  cor- 
responding Avith  the  nearness  of  the  teachings  of  the  Ana- 
baptists to  the  Reformation  under  Luther.  John's  readiness 
to  Avritc  them,  shows  that  what  they  uttered  was  professcdli/ 
in  harmony  with  the  truths  Luther  had  previously  an- 
nounced. But  the  command  to  him,  v.  4,  "  Seal  up  those 
things  which  the  seven  thunders  uttered,  and  write  them 
not,"  when  he  was  elsewhere  commanded  (22:  10)  to  "  seal 
7ioi  the  sayings  of  the  prophecy  of  this  book,"  shows  that 
their  utterances  were  not  Heaven  inspired,  and  constituted  no 
part  of  "the  word  of  God,  and  of  the  testimony  of  Jesus 
Christ,"  which  John  bare  record  of  And  the  oath  of  the 
angel,  immediately  following,  shows  that  the  error  of  those 
utterances  had  respect  to  the  nature  and  time  of  the  king- 
dom of  God,  the  establishment  of  which  they  announced. 

THE   TIME  NOT  THEN. 

It  has  been  shown  that  the  Reformers  claimed  that  they 


44  THE   TIME   OF  THE   END. 

were  living  under  the  sixth  trumpet ;  so  that  the  Anabap- 
tists, in  claiming  the  setting  up  ot"  a  spiritval  kingdom  at 
that  epoch  by  human  instrumentality,  erred  in  the  time  of 
the  kingdom,  which  was  to  be  under  the  seventh  trumpet, 
and  not  the  sixth ;  and  in  its  nature  and  manner  of  estab- 
lishment, as  it  is  to  be  the  kingdom  of  the  redeemed,  estab- 
lished by  the  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

The  oath  of  the  angel,  vs.  6,  7,  according  to  the  correct 
rendering,  affirmed  that  "the  time  should  not  yet  be," — 
that  is,  under  the  sixth  trumpet, —  "  but  in  the  days  of  the 
voice  of  the  seventh  angel,  Avhen  he  will  sound,  the  secret 
of  God  will  be  finished,  as  He  hath  announced  to  His  ser- 
vants the  prophets." 

As  the  angel  with  the  open  book  thus  opposed  the  utter- 
ances of  the  discordant  thunders,  so  Luther,  who  had  opened 
the  Scriptures  to  the  people,  took  a  decided  position  against 
the  Anabaptists.  He,  and  those  who  adhered  to  him,  bore 
a  faithful  testimony  against  their  extravagances,  adhered  to 
the  written  word,  denounced  new  revelations,  and  showed 
from  the  Bible  that  Antichrist  was  to  be  overcome  by  the 
personal  advent  of  Christ,  and  not  by  the  sword  of  man. 
And  they  conclusively  showed  that,  the  six  thousand  years 
not  having  expired,  its  epoch  had  not  arrived. 

THE    'WO'B.Ti    TO    BE    AGAIN    PREACHED    TO    ALL    THE 
WORLD. 

In  confirmation  of  this  application  of  the  vision  in  the 
tenth  of  Rev.  is  the  declaration  in  v.  11,  that  "  Thou  must 
prophesy  again  before  many  peoples,  and  nations,  and 
tongues,  and  kings."  No  testimony  will  be  needed  for  any 
reader  to  admit  that,  witli  the  Reformation,  the  Gospel 
again  began  to  be  preached,  as  it  had  not  been  during  the 
long  darkness  of  Papal  superstitions,  and  that  since  then  it 
has  been  extensively  promulgated  in  distant  lands.  In  con- 
nection with  this  promulgation, —  as  discoveries  began  to  be 
made  in  prophetic  interpretation,  and  the  meaning  of  the 
sealed  portions  of  the  Sacred  Oracles  began  more  clearly  to 
be  understood, —  there  revived  again  an  expectation  of  the 
nearness  of  the  end,  and  efforts  to  compute  its  epoch  by 
computations  based  on  the  Prophetic  Periods. 


THE    YEAR-DAY    PRINCirLE.  45 

THP   MIDNIGHT   CKY. 

In  view  of  the  facts,  that  the  early  Christians  ■waited  for 
the  coming  of  Christ  from  heaven :  that  the  epoch  for  which 
they  looked  passed  without  the  establishment  of  the  kingdom  ; 
that  tlie  tarrying  or  delay  of  the  bridegroom,  beyond  the 
period  of  his  looked  for  advent,  had  resulted  in  a  general 
forgetfulness  of  his  coming  by  the  professed  church ;  that 
the  belief  tliat  jTi'cvaiied  in  the  tenth  century  on  the  subject 
was  dictated  by  fear,  and  not  by  love  for  his  appearing ; 
that  the  faith  of  the  Anabaptists  had  respect  to  a  spiritual 
kingdom  before  the  end,  disconnected  from  the  resurrected 
saints,  and  that  the  revival  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Advent 
near,  under  the  Kcformers  and  their  successors,  was  the 
first  revival  of  the  doctrine  as  preached  by  the  early  Chris- 
tians, there  is  little  reason  to  (juestion  that  in  these  occur- 
rences are  to  be  found  the  likeness  of  the  parable  of  the 
virgins,  in  Matt.  25:  "While  the  Bridegroom  tarried  they 
all  slumbered  and  slept.  And  at  midnight  there  was  a 
cry  made,  Behold  the  Bridegroom  cometh  :  go  ye  out  to 
meet  him."  As  light  began  to  dawn  on  the  Prophetic 
Word,  an  early  discovery  was  that  of 

THE    YEAK-DAY   PBINCIPLE    OF   INTERPRETATION. 

This  is  emphatically  a  discovery  of  the  Protestant  Reform- 
ation.     Says  Mr.  Elliott : 

"  For  the  first  four  centuries,  the  days  of  Antichrist's 
duration,  given  in  Daniel  and  the  Apocalyptic  prophecies, 
were  interpreted  literally  as  d<i]/s,  not  as  years,  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  Christian  church." — Horm  A  p.,  v.  iii., 
p.  253. 

From  this  period  to  the  time  of  Luther,  there  are  to  be 
found  in  the  writings  of  expositors  occasional  mystical 
applications  of  the  days  of  Daniel  and  John,  in  which  they 
were  enlarged  from  literal  days ;  yet  they  seem  to  have  had 
no  clear  or  more  than  an  occasional  perception  of  the  year- 
day  principle  of  interpretation.  Says  Mr.  Elliott:  "The 
year-day  principle  scarcely  broke  on  Luther's  mind  ;  and 
he  once  iiad  a  curious  notion  of  a  prophetic  fime,  being 
e(j[ual   to  thirty  years.    .    .    .    But  we  find  it  hinted  at  by 


46  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

Melancthon.  And  the  Magdeburgh  Centuriators  fullj  ad- 
vocated the  year-day  principle,  and  applied  it  to  the  Papacy, 
as  also  most  Protestants  afterwards." — Horm  Apoc,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  260. 

So  silently  did  this  principle  come  into  use,  and  so  uni- 
versally has  it  been  acquiesced  in  by  Protestant  commenta- 
tors, that  Prof.  Stuart  says  : 

"  It  is  a  singular  fact  THAT  the  great  mass  of  inter- 
preters in  the  English  and  American  world  have,  for  many 
years,  been  Avont  to  understand  the  days  designated  in 
Daniel  and  the  Apocalypse  as  the  representatives  or  sym- 
bols of  years.  I  have  found  it  difficult  to  trace  the  origin 
of  this  general,  /  might  say  almost  universal  cus- 
tom."—  Hints,  p.  77. 

He  also  says  :  "  For  a  long  time  these  principles  have 
been  so  current  among  the  expositors  of  the  English  and 
American  Avorld,  that  scarcely  a  serious  attempt  to  vindicate 
them  has  of  late  been  made.  They  have  been  regarded  as 
so  jplain  and  so  well  fortified  against  all  objections,  that 
most  expositors  have  deemed  it  quite  useless  even  to  at- 
tempt to  defend  them.  One  might,  indeed,  almost  compare 
the  ready  and  unwavering  assumption  of  these  propositions 
to  the  assumption  of  the  first  self-evident  axioms  in  the 
science  of  geometry,  which  not  only  may  dispense  with  any 
process  of  ratiocination  in  their  defence,  but  which  do  not 
even  admit  of  any." —  Hints,  p.  8. 

And  Prof  Bush,  in  writing  to  Mr.  Miller,  said  :  "  I  do 
not  conceive  your  errors  on  the  subject  of  chronology  to  be 
at  all  of  a  serious  nature,  or  in  fact  to  be  ve?'y  vide  of  the 
truth.  In  taking  a  day  as  the  prophetical  time  for  a  year, 
I  believe  you  are  sustained  by  the  soundest  exegesis,  as 
well  as  fortified  by  the  high  names  of  Mede,  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  Bishop  Newton,  Paber,  Scott,  Keith,  and  a  host 
of  others,  who  have  long  since  come  to  sid/stantially  your 
conclusions  on  this  head.  They  all  agree  that  the  leading 
periods  mentioned  by  Daniel  and  John  do  actually  expire 
about  this  age  of  the  world;  and  it  would  be  strange  logic 
that  would  convict  you  of  heresy  for  holding  in  effect  the 
same  views  Avhich  stand  forth  so  prominently  in  the  notices 
of  these  eminent  divines."  "  Your  results  in  this  field  of 
inquiry  do  not  strike  me  as  so  far  out  of  the  way  as  to 


TUE    PERIODS    OF   TUE    APOCALYPSE.  47 

affect  any  of  the  great  interests  of  truth  or  duty." — Ad. 
He?'.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  38. 

"  If  the  old  established  principle  of  the  year-day  theory  is 
wrong,  then,  said  Prof  Bush,  '  not  only  has  the  whole 
Christian  world  been  led  astray  for  ages  by  a  mere  i(/nis 
fatuus  of  false  hcruiencutics,  but  the  church  is  at  once  cut 
loose  from  every  chronological  mooring,  and  set  adrift  in  the 
open  sea,  without  the  vestige  of  a  beacon,  light-house,  or 
star,  by  Avhich  to  determine  her  bearings  or  distances  from 
the  desired  millennial  haven  to  which  she  had  hoped  she  was 
tending.'  " 

"  It  was  quite  impossible,"  says  Mr.  Elliott,  "that  Apoc- 
alyptic interpretation  could  go  on  without  that  (pestion 
being  considered,  and  concluded  on.  ^Vccordingly  we  find 
that,  almost  immediately  after  Luther's  publication  of  his 
Bible,  it  was  discussed  by  the  chief  Protestant  prophetic 
expositors  that  followed ;  and  in  most  cases  the  year-day 
principle  applied  to  explain  them." 

It  then  became  a  primary  clement  with  all  such  exposi- 
tors in  calculations  of  the  probabilities  of  the  future.  As 
an  clement,  however,  in  the  unsealing  of  the  book  of  Dan- 
iel, it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 

THE   PERIODS  OP  THE   APOCALYPSE  WERE   THE   KEY 
TO   THE  TIMES  IN  DANIEL. 

This  position  is  sustained  by  the  following  extract  from 
the  writings  of  Joseph  Mode,  usually  denominated  "  the 
learned  Joseph  Medc,"'  who  published  his  Clavis  Apocalyp- 
tlca,  in  1G27.  Mr.  Elliott  states  that  Mr.  Mede  "was 
looked  on  and  written  of  as  a  man  almost  inspired  for  the 
solution  of  the  Apocalyptic  mysteries.  The  following  is 
from  a  volume  of  Mcde's  Discourses,"  now  belonging  to 
Harvard  College  Library.  Of  the  times  in  Dan.  7  :  25, 
he  says : 

•  "  Concerning  these  times  thus  found  we  will  now  further 
inquire,  1st.  What  durance  they  niay  be  of  2d.  When 
they  take  their  beginning,  and  by  what  mark  their  beginning 
may  be  known.  For  the  first  we  will  make  no  question  but 
these  are  the  self-same  times  whereof  St.  John  speaks,  tell- 
ing us  the  church  should  be  in  the  wilderness  a  time,  times 


48  THE    TIME    OF   TUE    END. 

and  halfe  a  time ;  the  same  with  those  two  and  forty  months," 
&c.  &c.  "If  therefore  we  can  finde  the  beginning  and  contin- 
uance, we  can  find  the  end  of  them  all  For  the  duration  and 
length  of  them  they  must  imply  some  definitive  times,  because 
the  Scripture  follows  that  use  of  speech,  and  useth  no  number 
indefinitely  but  those  wdiich  the  use  of  speech  hath  made 
such,  as  1,  10,  1000;  but  mixt  and  compound  numbers,  as 
these,  3|,  42,  1260,  are  neither  in  Hebrew,  nor,  I  think,  in 
any  other  language,  used  indefinitely.  Our  adversaries 
would  have  them  literally  understood,  as  though  it  were  a 
history,  and  not  a  prophesie ;  but,  besides  the  use  of  the 
prophesie  to  reckon  days  for  years,  I  think  it  would  trouble 
any  man  to  conceive  how  so  many  things  as  should  be  per- 
formed in  this  time  should  be  done  in  three  single  years  and 
a  halfe." — Aposiase,  p.  72. 

Mr.  Elliott  says  :  "As  all  know,  the  Millennium  is  con- 
strued by  Mede  like  as  by  the  oldest  pratistic  expositors, — 
Irenasus,  Justin  Martyr,  &;c. ;  the  first  resurrection  being 
the  literal  resurrection  of  the  saints,  fulfilled  on  Christ's 
coming  to  Antichrist's  destruction." 

Mr.  Mede  does  not  appear  to  have  terminated  the  pro- 
phetic periods  at  any  specific  epoch ;  and  one  of  the  first 
who  did  so  terminate  them  was  David  Parens,  D.  D.,  who 
"was  born  in  Silesia  in  1548,  and  commenced  the  1260  years 
in  605.  This  would  terminate  them  in  1865  or  6, — a 
point  within 

THE  HALF-CENTURY  OF  EXPECTATION  OF  THE 
CHURCH. 

It  is  a  singular  fact  in  the  history  of  Prophetic  Interpre- 
tation that,  in  a  majority  of  instances,  the  calculations  of 
those  who  have  attempted  to  penetrate  the  mystery  of  the 
Prophetic  Periods  have  looked  with  interest  to  various 
epochs  within  the  half-century  extending  from  1830  to  1880. 
These  several  epochs  will  be  noticed,  with  the  mode  of  com- 
putation by  which  they  have  been  reached. 

THE  EPOCH  OF  A.D.  1836. 

This  epoch  was  regarded  as  a  point  of  interest  by  Bengel, 
Wesley,  and  others ;  and,  although  it  has  passed,  it  may  not 


TUE    EPOCH    OF   A.  D.    183G.  49* 

be  uninteresting  to  notice  the  chronological  process  bj  which 
they  arrived  at  it. 

James  Albert  Bengel, 

Who  was  born  in  Wurtcmbcrg,  in  Germany,  June  24th, 
1G87,  was  a  learned  writer  on  the  Apocalypse,  and  is  often 
referred  to  as  terminating  the  periods  in  1836.  He 
wrote  on  this  subject  in  1740,  and  gave  his  views,  not  as 
articles  of  faith,  but  as  things  which  would  both  admit  of 
and  require  correction."  Dr.  Clarke  says  of  him,  that  "in 
him  were  united  two  rare  qualifications, —  the  deepest  piety 
and  the  most  extensive  learning." 

In  1741,  he  published  his  "  Ordo  Temporum,"  in  the 
preface  of  which  he  says  : 

•'  As  the  many  numerical  specifications  found  in  Scrip- 
ture have  a  peculiar  claim  to  our  attention,  because  they 
belong  to  Divine  Revelation,  so  they  have  a  mutual  connec- 
tion, which  conducts  us  on  to  one  great  and  important  final 
point, —  the  day  of  Christ's  appearing.  That  to  this  object 
the  historical  as  Avell  as  prophetic  books  severally  contribute, 
and  that  by  attending  to  their  intimations  with  simplicity, 
and  a  desire  to  learn,  we  shall  find  an  agreeable  path  through 
the  obscure  labyrinth  of  their  chronology." — Memoir  of 
Bengel^  p.  267. 

He  then  proceeds  to  calculate  the  sum  of  the  periods  of 
the  Hebrew  text,  which  he  estimates  to  amount  to  three  thou- 
sand nine  hundred  and  forty-three  years  from  the  creation 
to  the  Christian  era,  and  says  (lb.,  p.  278)  : 

"  The  Bible  divides  the  duration  of  this  world's  economy 
either  into  two  parts,  '  the  beginning '  and  '  the  end '  (1 
Sam.  3:12;  1  Chron.  29  :  29)  ;  or  into  three,—  '  the  be- 
ginning,^ '  the  midst, ^  and  '  the  end.^  In  the  former  case, 
the  whole  time  of  the  New  Testament  dispensation  falls 
within  the  second  half,  and  is  called  '  the  last  time,'  and 
'  the  end  of  the  world '  (1  Pet.  1 :  20 ;  Heb.  9  :  26 ;  1  Cor. 
10  :  11)  ;  but,  in  the  latter  case,  Chi-ist's  fii-st  coming  is  in 
'  the  midst '  of  this  economy,  fulfilling  the  prophetic  petition 
of  Habakkuk,  chap.  3  :  2.  Now,  by  attending  to  the  con- 
nection of  these  two  expiTssions,  the  beginning  and  the  end, 
we  find  incontrovertibly  that  the  time  of  the  New  Testament 
dispensation  must  be  shorter  than  the  period  of  three  thou- 
5 


50  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

sand  nine  hundred  and  forty  years,  the  duration  of  the  Old 
Testament ;  consequently  the  world  would  endure  at  furthest 
not  beyond  seven  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty  years ; " 
the  last  two  thousand  of  which,  he  claimed,  would  follow 
the  commencement  of  the  Millennium,  which  epoch  would 
synchronize,  in  his  scheme,  Avith  1836. 

What  he  considered  the  "key"  to  his  system  of  inter- 
preting prophetic  time  is  briefly  stated  in  a  letter,  in  1724, 
in  which  he  writes  J.  F.  Reuss : 

"  It  is  impossible  for  me  to  withhold  from  you  a  disclosure, 
which,  however,  I  must  request  you  to  keep  entirely  to 
yourself  By  the  help  of  the  Lord  I  have  found  the  num- 
ber of  the  Beast.  It  is  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  years, — 
from  A.  D.  1143  to  A.  D.  1809."— /<^.,  p.  284. 

A  few  days  later  he  adds  : 

'  ■  It  was  with  great  pleasure  I  lately  noticed  Luther's  re- 
mark upon  Rev.  13 :  18  ;  for  I  find  that  he.  too,  interpreted 
the  number  of  the  Beast  as  denoting  six  hundred  and  sixty- 
six  years  for  the  period  of  the  Papal  temporal  domination ; 
only,  according  to  him,  that  period  commenced  under  Hilde- 
brand  in  a.  d.  1013." — lb. 

With  this  basis,  he  proceeded  in  a  somewhat  mysticat, 
manner  to  compute  the  prophetic  periods.  Taking  as  a  prem- 
ise that  "  a  prophetic  day  is  about  half  of  a  natural  year," 
he  says  : 

"  Let  us  now  further  consider  that  that  conclusion  makes 
the  forty  and  two  months  of  the  Beast  to  be  about  half  of 
one  thousand  two  hundred  and  sixty,  equal  to  about  six 
hundred  and  thirty  years ;  which  tends  to  confirm  the  sup- 
position already  expressed,  namely,  that  the  number  Q^Q 
denominates  years. 

"  Let  us  make  use  of  the  result  thus  far  attained  for  the 
purpose  of  discovering  all  the  other  Apocalyptical  periods. 
This  is  to  be  done  principally  by  comparing  with  the  num- 
ber 666,  the  thousand  years  mentioned  in  the  twentieth 
chapter.  At  once  we  perceive  that  this  latter  number  bears 
to  the  former  the  relation  of  3  to  2 ;  and  by  a  little  ad- 
ditional thought  we  obtain  the  following  interesting  propor- 
tion :  —  3:2::  999|||  years  :  666 l}|f  years  ;  consequently 
a  unit  of  666 ffg-  must  be  l^^^r  year.  And  this  may  be 
one  reason  why  the  word  years  is  not  added  to  the  numeral 


THE    EPOCH    OP   A.  D.    1S;!G.  51 

expression  '  si.v  Jiuiidred  three  score  (i/id  six.'  in  the  sacred 
text.  Unity,  in  each  of  these  denominations,  with  the 
appropriate  traction  annexed  (thus.  111.'),  very  little  ex- 
ceeds the  ancient  llonian  centur}'',  which  consisted  of  110 
years.  Mention  is  made  of  a  '  half-time '  in  the  text  itself, 
and  there  is  reason  for  supposing  a  half-time  to  be  exactly 
the  unity  we  here  speak  of  with  its  a/}j)ro/)riatc  fraction  ; 
80  that  Ave  may  exhibit  the  apocalyptical  periods  according 
to  the  following  scale  : 

A  Half-time, =  111,}  years,  ch.  20  :  4. 

A  Time  (^KHQioi), =  ---f 

A  Time  and  a  half, ==  333 

Two  Times, =  444* 

A  Ilalf-perioil  (lulf  /qoh'c,),       .     -  =  555§ 
The  numher  of  the  lieast,      -     -     -  =  GGOl  eh.  13  :  18. 

A  Time,  Times  and  Half  a  Time,    -  =  777|  ch.  12  :  14. 

A  Short  Time  (o;';oe  y-<"ooi),    -     -  =  888^  ch.  12  :  12. 

A  Thousand  Years, =  999|  ch.  20  :  2. 

The  'time  no  longer'  (ovjci'n  /oomQ), 

or  no  whole  period  betwcen=99!l|  and  1111^       ch.  10  :  6. 

A  period  (yoo/og), =  1111^       ch.     G  :  11. 

An  iEon,  or  double  period  (i<(a)(),      -  =  2222j       ch.  14  :  6. 

"  Thus  an,  accurate  consideration,  of  the  text  discovers 
a  regularly  ascending  series  of  periods,  as  here  stated.  The 
difficulty  that  a  '  short  time  '  (ch.  12  :  12)  should  denote  the 
long  space  of  888 1  years,  is  done  away  by  considering  that 
our  computation  is  by  half-times  (viz.  111^,).  Now,  the 
ancients  used  to  reckon  no  less  than  seven  to  the  completion 
of  a  time  (x.<//go5)  ;  hence  four  times  (or  222^X'l)  might 
easily  be  denominated  'a  short  time.'  ■" — //>.,  p.  290. 

Then  follows  a  table  of  events,  extending  from  the  crea- 
tion of  the  world  to  tlie  binding  of  Satan,  in  which  he  gives : 

"  Rev.  10  :  G.  Connnencement  of  the  ^lon-chronos  (or 
a  TiJiK  no  Io7/(/er),  which  lasts  1036 

years, 800—1836 

The  Third  Woe  (ch.  12  :  12)  lasts  'a 

short  time,'  888|  years,  -  -  -  947—1836. 
"12:14.  The  time,  times  and  hali-time,  or  3J- 
ye;us,  in  which  the  woman  nourishes 
and  supports  herself  in  the  northern 
countries  of  Europe  a  period,  777f 
years, 1058—1836 


52  THE    TIME    OF    THE    END. 

"  The  most  favorable  time,  wherein  she 

nourishes  herself,  &c.,    -     -     -     1G17 — 183G. 

"  TJie  Harvest  and  the  Vintage.  The 
sweeping  away  of  many  good  and 
bad  men  from  the  earth,  ch.  14  :  15 

—18, 1740—1836 

"  11 :  3.   The  prophesy'mrj  of  the  Tzvo  Witnesses; 

which  hists  I'iGO  common  days,      1830 — 1836 
"  11  :  2.   The  last  Treadin/j-down  of  Jerusalem  ; 
which  continues 'forty  and  two  com- 
mon months, 1830—1836 

"  The  rise  of  the  Beast  out  of  the  bot- 
tomless pit, about  1830 

"  The  Beast  takes  his  throne  upon  the 
seven  mountains;  where  he  nmst 
'continue  a  short  space,'  ch.  17  :  10, 1831 — 1832 

"  The  power  of  the  Ten  Kings  (one  hour),      1832, 
ch.  17  :  12,  lasts  one  prophetic  hour  ;  fro™  the  uth 

, ,     ,    .         ...         ,         11  to  the  22d 

that  is,  eight  natural  days,      -     -  oct. 

"  The   Seven  Plagues,  ch.  16.     Divide 

into  four  and  three,   and  run  out     about 
quickly  in  the  days  of  Antichrist,  1831 — 1836 

"  The  ten  kings  lay  Babylon  (Rome) 
waste;  in  an  agreement  with  the 
Beast ;  ch.  17  :  16  ;  ch.  18,  -     -     -      1833 

"  The  last  raging  of  Antichrist ;  which 
continues  about  three  common  years 
and  a  half, 1832—1836 

"  Conflict  of  the  Beast  out  of  the  Bottom- 
less Pit  ivith  the  people  of  God  ;  and 
his  overthroio  at  the  appearing  of  the 
Lord  ;  ch.  19  :  11-21,    -     -     18  June,  1836 

"  Thousand  years'  binding  of  Satan  ;  ch. 

20  :  1—3, 1836—2836 

"  Loosing  of  Satan  for  '  a  little  time ' 
(,«(xgoi'  ZQovoi'),  a  period  of  111^ 
years  ;  ch.  20  :  3,       ....     2836—2947 

"  Thousand  years'  reign  of  the  saints  in 

heaven ;  ch.  20  :  4,   -     -     -     -     2836—3836 

"  End  of  the  world,  and  Judgment,       3836." 

Speaking  of  the  result   of  these    calculations,  he  says 
(7^..,  pp.  293.  4)  : 

"  Should  the  year   183G   pass  away  without  any  such 


THE    EPOCH    OF    A.  D.    183G.  53 


remarkable  change  in  public  aflfairs  as  I  have  anticipated, 
some  fundamental  mistake  in  the  arrangement  of  my  sys- 
tem must  be  sought  after.  Should  even  my  exposition  of 
the  prophetic  periods  in  general  be  ultimatel}'  found  erro- 
neous, still  my  practical  apjdication  of  the  matters  of  those 
periods  "will  stand  good  and  be  serviceable  ;  and  not  less 
valuable  in  its  place  will  be  found,  I  trust,  my  exhibition 
of  the  structure  of  the  Apocalypse  :  indeed,  I  cannot  help 
thinking  that  the  two  inquiries,  namely,  into  the  structure 
of  the  subject-matters,  and  into  the  determination  of  the 
periods,  serve  materially  to  illustrate  each  other.  And  my 
province  is  not  so  much  to  declare  future  events,  as  to  dis- 
play the  relative  bearings  of  the  Apocalyptical  system. 
Perhaps  I  could  tell  the  world  more  plainly  than  I  am  dis- 
posed to  do  in  what  manner  a  variety  of  future  events  will 
turn  out ;  yes,  how  they  will  shape  themselves  in  the  course 
of  the  next  century ;  as  also  how  they  will  succeed  one 
another.  But  men  have  warnings  adequate  to  all  necessary 
purposes ;  quite  as  adequate  as  if  the  events  were  rightly 
computed  to  an  exact  period  or  year. 

"  I  have  watched  the  condition  of  our  times,  and  am  con- 
vinced that  the  art  of  political  government  is  forming  more 
and  more  methodically  into  a  system  from  which  all  holy 
fear  concerning  the  judgment  of  God  is  meant  to  be  care- 
fully excluded.  And  here,  indeed,  we  outdo  the  ancients. 
Their  governments  had  their  religions,  however  false. 
Among  ourselves  also  prevail  sins,  which  the  prophet  com- 
plains of  respecting  Sodom  ;  namely,  pride,  luxury,  indo- 
lence, and  contempt  of  inferiors.  Those  of  lower  ranks, 
Avho  can  by  any  means  keep  pace  with  the  higher,  are  per- 
mitted to  come  up  with  them  ;  and  this  permission  is  imag- 
ined to  atone  for  everything  else.  Surely  we  cannot  feel  at 
home  in  such  a  world  as  we  now  find  it ;  at  best  it  is  but  as 
an  inn  upon  the  road :  and  the  summons  '  Arise,  and  depart, 
for  this  is  not  your  rest,  because  it  is  polluted,'  surely  can- 
not be  unwelcome  when  it  comes.  For  folly  is  practised 
exceedingly  in  our  own  days :  because  it  is  taken  for  granted 
that  we  can  know  nothing  about  futurity,  and  because,  to 
superficial  beholders  of  God's  providence,  all  is  at  present 
uncertainty  and  suspense ;  but  when  the  great  breaking  up 
5* 


54  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

shall  begin,  what  things  are  there  of  an  awful  and  import- 
ant kind  that  may  not  be  expected  to  follow  one  another  in 
quick  succession  !  " — lb.,  pp.  316,  317. 

As  mystical  as  these  calculations  were,  they  had  a  great 
effect  in  calling  the  attention  of  Christians  to  the  study  of 
the  prophecies,  and  were  adopted  by  many  distinguished 
divines.     Among  these  we  instance  the  name  of 

John  Wesley. 

This  celebrated  founder  of  Methodism  was  born  in  Eng- 
land in  1703.  In  1754  he  published  his  Notes  on  the 
New  Testament;  and,  in  interpreting  the  prophetic  peri- 
ods, he  mainly  followed  Bengel.  His  conclusions  may  be 
very  simply  stated.  In  commenting  on  the  text  in  Rev. 
10  :  6,  which  he  renders  "There  shall  be  no  more  a  time," 
he  says  : 

' '  That  is,  a  time,  a  chronos,  shall  not  expire  before  that 
mystery  is  fulfilled.  A  chronos  (1111  years)  will  nearly 
pass  before  then,  but  not  quite.  The  period,  then,  which 
we  may  term  a  non-chronos  (not  a  whole  time)  must  be  a 
little,  and  not  much  shorter  than  this.  The  non-chronos 
here  mentioned  seems  to  begin  in  the  year  800  (when 
Charles  the  Great  instituted  in  the  west  a  new  line  of  em- 
perors or  of  many  kings),  to  end  in  the  year  1836  ;  and  to 
contain,  among  other  things,  the  short  time  of  the  third  woe, 
the  three  times  and  a  half  of  the  woman  in  the  wilderness, 
and  the  duration  of  the  beast." 

Of  the  periods  in  the  12th  chapter  of  Rev.  he  says  : 

"  All  the  countries  in  which  Christianity  was  settled,  be- 
tween the  beginning  of  the  one  thousand  two  hundred  and 
sixty  days  and  the  imprisonment  of  the  dragon,  may  be 
understood  by  the  wilderness,  and  by  her  place  in  particular. 
This  place  contained  many  countries,  so  that  Christianity 
now  reached,  in  an  uninterrupted  tract,  from  the  eastern  to 
the  western  empire.  And  both  the  emperors  noAV  lent  their 
wings  to  the  woman,  and  provided  a  safe  abode  for  her ; 
where  she  is  fed — by  God  rather  than  man,  having  little 
human  help  — /o;-  a  thne,  and  times,  and  half  a  time. 
The  length  of  the  several  periods  here  mentioned  seems  to 
be  nearly  thus : 


THE    EPOCH    OF    A.  D.    183G.  55 

1.  The  non-chronos  contains  less  than     -     -     -  1111  years. 

2.  The  little  time, 888 

3.  The  time,  times,  and  half  a  time,       ...       777 

4.  The  time  of  the  beast, 6GG 

"And,  comparing  the  prophecy  and  history  together,  they 
seem  to  begin  and  end  nearly  thus : 

1.  The  non-chronos  extends  from  about       -     -     800  to  1836 

2.  The  12G0  days  of  the  woman,  -     -     -     from  847  to  lo24 

3.  The  little  time, from  947  to  183G 

4.  The  time,  times,  and  half  a  time,  -     -  from  1058  to  183G 

5.  The  time  of  the  beast  is  between  the  beginning  and  end  of 

the  three  times  and  a  half. 

"  In  the  year  1058,  the  empires  had  a  good  understanding 
witli  each  other,  and  both  protected  the  Avoman ;  the  Bishops 
of  Rome  likewise,  particularly  Victor  II.,  were  duly  subor- 
dinate to  the  emperor.  We  may  observe  the  one  thousand 
two  hundred  and  sixty  days  of  the  woman,  from  847  to 
1524,  and  the  three  times  and  a  half,  refer  to  the  same  wil- 
derness. But  in  the  former  part  of  the  one  thousand  two 
hundred  and  sixty  days,  before  the  three  times  and  a  half 
began,  namely,  from  the  year  847  to  1058,  she  was  fed  by 
others,  being  little  able  to  help  herself;  whereas,  from  1058 
to  1524,  she  is  both  fed  by  others  and  has  food  herself. 
To  this  the  sciences,  transplanted  into  the  west  from  the 
eastern  countries,  much  contributed ;  the  Scriptures  in  the 
original  tongues,  brought  into  the  west  of  Europe  by  the 
Jews  and  Greeks,  much  more ;  and  most  of  all,  the  Reform- 
ation grounded  on  those  Scriptures. 

^^But  the  earth  helped  the  woman.  —  The  powers  of  the 
earth  ;  and,  indeed,  she  needed  help  through  this  whole 
period.  The  time  was  from  1058  to  1280  ;  during  which 
the  Turkish  flood  ran  higher  and  higher,  though  frequently 
repressed  by  the  emperors,  or  their  generals,  helping  the 
voman.  The  (two)  times  were  from  1280  to  1725.  Dur- 
ing these,  likewise,  the  Turkfsh  power  flowed  far  and  wide. 
But  still,  from  time  to  time,  the  princes  of  the  earth  helped 
the  woman,  that  she  was  not  carried  away  by  it.  The  half- 
time  is  from  1725  to  1836." 

On  the  17th  chapter  he  remarks  as  follows  : 


56  IKE    TIMK    OF    THE    END. 

"  Perhaps  the  times  hitherto  mentioned  might  be  fixed 
thus : 

"  1058  Wings  are  given  to  the  woman. 

1077  The  beast  ascends  out  of  the  sea. 

1143  The  forty-two  months  begin. 

1810  The  forty-two  months  end. 

1832  The  beast  ascends  out  of  the  bottomless  pit. 

1836  The  beast  finally  overthrown." 

And  on  the  closing  page  of  his  Notes  he  assigns  to  the 
year  183G  : 

"  The  end  of  the  non-chronos,  and  of  the  many  kings  ;  the  ful- 
filling of  the  word,  and  of  the  mystery  of  God  ;  the  repent- 
ance of  the  survivors  in  the  great  city ;  and  the  end  of  the 
little  time,  and  of  the  three  times  and  a  half;  the  destruction 
of  the  beast ;   the  imprisonment  of  Satan,  chap.  19,  20. 

"  The  loosing  of  Satan  for  a  small  time ;  the  beginning  of  the 
one  thousand  years'  reign  of  the  saints  ;  the  end  of  the  small 
time,  chap.  20. 

"  The  end  of  the  world  ;  all  things  new,  chap.  20-22." 


THE  EPOCH  OF  A.  D.  1843-4. 

The  simple  argument  for  this  epoch  was  based  on  a  sup- 
posed connection  of  the  seventy  weeks  of  the  9th  of  Daniel 
with  the  2300  days  of  the  8th,  reckoning  them  from  a 
common  date.  Ben-inninfj  them  w^ith  the  decree  of  Artaxerxes 
Longimanus,  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign  (see  Ezra 
7th),  the  seventy  weeks  would  terminate  in  A.  D.  33^; 
and,  commencing  the  2300  prophetic  days  at  the  same  epoch, 
they  would  extend  to  1843-4. 

Hans  Wood,  Esq. 

Says  the  Rev.  Wm.  Hales,  D.  D.,  the  learned  chronologer  : 
"  This  simple  and  ingenious  adjustment  of  the  chronology  of 
the  seventy  weeks,  considered  as  forming  a  part  of  the  2300 
days,  was  originally  due  to  the  sagacity  of  Hans  Wood,  Esq., 
of  Rossmead,  in  the  county  of  Westmeath,  Ireland,  and  pub- 
lished by  him  in  an  anonymous  commentary  on  the 
Revelation    of   St.    John :    London,    1787,    Payne,    8vo. 


THE    EPOCH    OF    1843-4.  07 


Whence  I  republished  it  in  the  Inspecio?^  8vo,  1799.  And 
aftenvards  in  the  Orihodox  Cluirrhmaii's  Moffazme, 
1803;  and  now,  more  correctly,  1809," — in  his  "New 
Analysis  of  Chronology,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  564. 

William  Miller. 

This  was  the  epoch  to  ^Yhich  the  late  Wm.  Miller,  of  Low 
Hampton,  New  York,  looked  as  that  which  should  witness 
the  second  advent  of  Christ.  The  argument  which  ]\Ir. 
Miller  used  in  support  of  tliis  point  was  based  upon  the  lit- 
eral meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word,  which,  in  our  version  of 
Daniel  9  :  24,  is  rendered  "  determined,"  — cut  off^  or  cnt 
out, —  and  the  circumstances  in  which  Gabriel  appeared  to 
Daniel,  as  stated  in  the  ninth  chapter,  with  the  instruction 
given. 

In  the  8th  chapter  of  Daniel  is  recorded  a  vision  which 
was  to  extend  to  the  cleansing  of  the  sanctuary,  and  to  con- 
tinue 2800  days.  Daniel  had  ''  sought  for  the  meaning  " 
of  that  vision,  and  a  voice  said  :  "  Gabriel,  make  this  man 
to  understand  the  vision."  Gabriel  said  to  Daniel:  "I 
will  make  thee  know  what  shall  be  in  the  last  end  of 
the  indignation  ;  for,  at  the  time  appointed,  the  end  shall 
be ; "  and  then  proceeded  to  explain  the  symbols,  but 
said  nothing  of  their  duration.  At  the  close  of  the  expla- 
nation Daniel  fainted,  and  was  sick  certain  days ;  and  he 
says  he  "was  astonished  at  the  vision,  but  none  under- 
stood it.". 

Three  years  subsequent  to  that  vision,  Daniel  —  under- 
standing "by  books  the  number  of  the  years  whereof  the 
word  of  the  Lord  came  to  Jeremiah  the  prophet,  that  he 
would  accomplish  seventy  years  in  the  desolations  of  Jerusa- 
salem  " — set  his  face  unto  the  Lord  to  seek  by  prayer  and 
supplications,  with  fasting,  and  sackcloth,  and  ashes.  He 
proceeded  to  confess  his  own  sins  and  the  sins  of  his  people, 
and  to  supplicate  the  Lord's  fiivor  on  the  sanctuary  that  was 
desolate.  While  he  was  thus  speaking,  Daniel  says : 
"  Gabriel,  whom  I  had  seen  in  t/ic  visioi/  at  the  beginning, 
being  caused  to  Hy  swiftly,  touched  me  about  the  time  of  the 
evening  oblation  ;  and  he  informed  me,  and  talked  with  me, 
and  said  :  '  0  Daniel,  I  am  now  come  forth  to  give  thee  skill 


58  THE    TIME    OF    THE    END. 


and  understanding.  At  the  beginning  of  thy  supplications 
the  comuiandment  came  forth,  and  I  am  come  to  show  thee;  for 
thou  art  greatly  beloved ;  therefoie  understand  the  matter 
and  consider  the  vision.  Seventy  weeks  -ax^  determined^  " 
&c.,  "from  the  going  forth  of  the  decree  to  restore  and  to 
build  Jerusalem  unto  Messiah  the  Prince  :  '*  —  after  which 
Jerusalem  was  to  be  made  desolate  '^  until  the  consummation." 
—  Dan.  9  :  20—27. 

Dr.  Gill,  a  distinguished  divine  and  scholar,  rendered  the 
word  "  determined "  cut  ojf^  and  is  sustained  by  good 
scholars. 

Hengstenberg,  who  enters  into  a  critical  examination  of 
the  original  text,  says:  "But  the  very  use  of  the  word, 
which  does  not  elsewhere  occur,  while  others,  much  more 
frequently  used,  were  at  hand,  if  Daniel  had  wished  to  ex- 
press the  idea  of  determination,  and  of  which  he  has  else- 
where, and  even  in  this  portion,  availed  himself,  seems  to 
argue  that  the  word  stands  from  regard  to  its  original 
meaning,  and  represents  the  seventy  weeks,  in  contrast  Avith 
a  determination  of  time  (en  jjlf^tel'),  as  a  period  cut  off 
from  suhscque)tt  duration  and  accnratfJy  limited.'''  — 
Christology  of  the  Old  Test..,  vol.  2,  p.  301.  Washington, 
1839. 

Gesenius,  in  his  Hebrew  Lexicon,  gives  cut  off  us  the  defini- 
tion of  the  word,  and  many  others  of  the  first  standing  as  to 
learning  and  research,  and  several  versions  have  thus  rendered 
it. 

Such  being  the  meaning  of  the  word,  and  such  the  cir- 
cumstances under  which  the  prophecy  of  the  seventy  weeks 
was  given,  Mr.  Miller  claimed  that  the  vision  which  Daniel 
was  called  on  to  consider,  and  respecting  which  Gabriel  was 
to  give  him  skill  and  understanding,  was  the  vision  of  the 
8th  chapter ;  of  which  Daniel  sought  the  meaning,  which 
Gabriel  was  commanded  to  make  him  understand,  but 
which,  after  Gabriel's  explanation,  none  understood ;  and 
that  the  seventy  weeks  of  years  —  that  is,  four  hundred 
and  ninety  that  were  cut  q^— were  cut  off  from  the 
2300  days  of  that  vision  ;  and,  consequently,  that  those 
two  periods  must  be  dated  from  the  same  epoch,  and  the 
longer  extend  1810  years  after  the  termination  of  the 
shorter. 


TUE    ErOCII    OF    1S47.  59 

Mr.  Miller  also  determined  the  1335  days  of  DanieM2th 
at  the  same  epoch,  commencing  tiiem  in  A.  D.  508,  when  he 
claimed  the  last  of  the  ten  kings  was  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity. 

William  Cuninghame,  Esq. 

The  ATncrablo  William  Cuninghame,  Esq.,  an  English 
gentleman  and  scholar.  Avithout  any  knowledge  of  Mr.  Mil- 
ler, had  also  arrived  at  the  same,  conclusion  from  like 
premises. 

Matthew  Habershon. 

The  same  view  was  advocated  by  several  Engli.sh  writers. 
Mr.  M.  Habershon  says  :  "In  this  conclusion  I  am  happy 
in  agreeing  with  Mr.  Cuninghame,  who  says,  '  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  more  probable  era  which  can  be  selected  for 
the  commencement  of  the  2300  years  than  that  which  has 
been  chosen  by  some  recent  writers,  who  supposed  this 
period  to  have  begun  at  the  same  time  with  the  seventy 
weeks  of  Daniel,  or  in  the  year  B.  c.  457,  and  consecjuently 
that  it  will  terminate  in  the  year  1843.'  " —  Hist.  Dls..  p. 
307. 

THE  EPOCH  A.  D.  1847. 

The  argument  in  support  of  this  date  varied  from  that 
for  1843,  in  the  commencement  of  the  2300  days  and 
seventy  weeks.  Instead  of  reckoning  them  from  the  7th  year 
of  the  reign  of  Artaxerxes,  the  advocates  of  this  epoch  fol- 
lowed the  chronology  of  Archbishop  Usher,  who  varied 
from  the  canon  of  Ptolemy  in  the  commencement  of  the 
reign  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus.  He  puts  the  death  of 
Xerxes  and  the  connnenceiiient  of  the  reign  of  Arta.xerxes 
nine  years  previous  to  that  given  in  the  canon.  And,  to 
harmonize  it,  he  '"takes  nine  j'cars  from  the  reign  of 
Xerxes,  and  adds  them  to  the  reijrn  of  Artaxerxes  Longi- 
manus,  his  son,  contracting  the  former  to  twelve  years,  and 
enlarging  the  latter  to  fifty."  (/M  Pridcau.r,  Hist,  of 
the  Jens.)  Therefore,  instead  of  commencing  the  reign 
of  the  latter  in  B.  C.  4(34.  he  commenced  it  in  B.  C.  473  ; 
and  so  he  reckoned  the  seventy  weeks,  not  from  the  7th, 


60  THE   TIME    OF  THE   END. 


butfwm  the  20tli  year  of  Artaxerxes  (see  Neli.  2d),  which 
he  synchronized  with  B.  C.  454.  Commencing  the  seventy 
weeks  with  that  date,  they  would  end  Avith  A.  D.  36-7: 
Usher  placing  the  crucifixion  in  A.  D.  33,  in  the  midst  of 
the  last  week.  Admitting  the  correctness  of  Usher's  com- 
mencement of  the  seventy  weeks,  and  commencing  the 
2300  days  at  the  same  epoch,  they  would  terminate  in  A. 
D.  1846-7. 

The  Rev.  R.  C.  Shimeall. 

Tlie  Rev.  R.  C.  Shimeall,  Presbyter  of  the  Prot.  Epis. 
Church  in  the  Diocese  of  New  York,  in  his  "  Age  of  the 
World,"  &c.,  published  in  1842,  says  : 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  our  deductions,  as  founded  upon 
Sacred  Historic  chronology,  furnish  an  aggregate  number 
of  3679  years,  from  the  Creation,  down  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  70  prophetic  weeks  of  Daniel.  Of  prophetic 
chronology,  the  numbers  upon  Avhich  we  are  dependent  to 
complete  the  6000th  year,  as  the  period  within  which  all 
God's  purposes  in  relation  to  this  world  will  be  accom- 
plished, are  the  following: 

Daniel's  70  weeks,  or  490  years,  from  -wliicli  deduct  A.  D.  37,    .    .    .  453 

Commencement  of  1260  days,  in  A.  D., 533 

The  1260  days  of  Daniel  and  St.  John, 1260 

Excess  of  1290  days  of  Dan.  xii.  over  1260, 30 

Excess  of  1335  of  Dan.  xii.  over  1290, 45 

Total     2321 
Add  the  historical  years  as  above 3679 

6000 

From 2321 

Deduct 453 

And  it  gives  you 1868 

as  the  period  when,  in  the  time  of  the  7th  angel,  Rev.  16  : 
17,  who  pours  out  the  last  vial  of  judgment  into  the  air, 
'  a  great  voice  out  of  the  temple  of  Heaven,  from  the 
throne,'  will  be  heard,  saying  '  IT  IS  DONE  ! ' 

From 1868 

Deduct 1842 

Which  leaves .         26 


THE    EPOCH    OF    1847.  61 

"  In  26  short  years,  therefore,  if  the  above  prophetic  num- 
bers can  be  demonstrated  to  have  their  support  in  Scripture, 
that  blessed  period,  the  consummation  of  the  devout  believ- 
er's faith  and  hope,  will  have  arrived,  when  he  who  is  '  the 
Alpha  and  Omega '  from  his  high  and  holy  throne  will 
proclaim,  '  Bi' HOLD,  I  make  all  things  new.'* 

"  But  these  prophetic  numbers,  if  viewed  in  their  relation 
to  the  events  with  which  they  stand  connected,  past,  pres- 
oit^  and  future,  all  conspire  to  admonish  us  '  upon  whom 
the  ends  of  the  world  are  come,'f  that  THE  GREAT 
DAY  OF  CRISIS,  both  to  the  Church  and  to  the  world,  is 
'just  at  hand.'  No,  we  are  not  to  calculate  upon  26 
years'  additional  probation,  under  the  present  existing  econ- 
omy of  the  Gospel !  Look  to  1847  !  May  Heaven  pre- 
pare us  all  to  meet  undismayed  the  terrors,  and  to  share 
triumphantly  in  the  f/hrics,  of  '  that  day  !  'J 

"  Perhaps,  however,  some  one  will  ask  if,  upon  n  pcjad- 
ventvre,  an  error  in  the  department  of  historic  chronology 
as  above  should  have  escaped  observation,  what  then 
becomes  of  all  these  deductions  ?  To  this  I  reply,  that,  con- 
fident as  I  feel  in  the  correctness  of  the  historico-chrono- 
logical  department  of  my  work,  as  herein  exhibited,  if  the 
great  Head  of  the  Church  has  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  his 
grace,  to  reveal  to  the  faithful  a  knowledge  of  Propheti- 
cal numbers, ■§)  and  these  prophetical  numbers,  as  interpreted 
in  the  sequel,  are  in  accordance  with  '  Holy  Scripture ;' 
then,  I  ask  but  a  single  admission,  in  order  to  demonstrate 
that,  independently  of  immutable  accuracy  in  giving  the 
length  of  each  link  in  the  first  half  of  our  golden  chain, 
the  crisis  in  A.  D.  1847,  and  the  '  finishing  of  the  mys- 
tery of  God," II  in  A.  D.  1868,  is  established  upon  grounds 
of  equal  certainty.  Prophecy  points  out  to  us  the  things 
that  shall  be  hereafter,^  even  to  the  last  act  of  the 
Almighty's  government  and  providence  over  the  world.** 
The  admission  that  I  ask  is,  that  the  present  is  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1842  from  the  Nativity."  —  pp.  221-4. 

His  argument  is  this  : 

*  Rev.  21  :  5.  1 1  Cor.  10  :  11. 

t  Thess.  5  :  1—4  ;  2  Pet.  3  :  10  ;  Rev.  3  :  B  ;  IG  :  15. 
§  See  pp.  142— 1.51.  II  Kcv.  10  :  7. 

IT  Rev.  1:10.  **Isa.  28  :  21,  22. 

6 


62  THE    TIME    OF   TUE    END. 

"  We  proceed,  therefore,  to  observe,  that  the  death  of 
the  Saviour  at  the  termination  of  liis  three  and  a  half  years' 
ministry  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  conversion  of  Corne- 
hus  after  the  three  and  a  half  years  of  the  apostolic  min- 
istry among  the  Jews  on  the  other,  together  make  up  the 
'one,'  or  last  of  the  70  pi-ophetic  weeks;  and,  added  to 
the  30  years  of  Christ's  age  when  he  commenced  his  min- 
istry, it  demonstrates  that  the  70  weeks  closed  A.  D.  37. 
Now,  carry  back  the  70  weeks,  or  490  years,  from  A.  D. 
37  to  the  era  B.  C,  and  you  have  the  date  of  'the  com- 
mand to  restore  and  to  build  Jerusalem,'  B.  C.  458,  or  A. 
M.  3679.  Then,  the  2300  years  beginning  at  the  same 
time,  Ave  ascertain  their  termination  merely  by  deducting  the 
years  before  the  incarnation,  Avhich  brings  us  down  to  A. 
D.  1847. 

"  But  by  what  event  is  the  close  of  2300  years  to  be  sig- 
nalized ?  Answer  :  The  cleansing  of  the  sanctuary,  the 
accomplishment  of  the  vision,  the  last  end  of  the  indigna- 
tion. Dan.  8:  14—19;  23—27.  In  other  words,  that 
in  A.  T>.  1847  the  Lord  Jehovah  will  appear  for  the  resto- 
ration and  reestablishment  in  Palestine  of  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham, which  he  sware  unto  their  fathers. 

"  Thus  have  we  disposed  of  the  first  prophetical  number  of 
453,  from  the  commencement  of  Daniel's  70  weeks  to  the 
nativity ;  or  490,  by  the  addition  thereto  of  A.  D.  37,  to 
the  conversion  of  Cornelius,  as  having  a  common  commence- 
ment with  the  2300  years.  But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  year 
A.  D.  1847,  as  the  terminating  point  of  the  2300  years, 
when  added  to  A.  M.  4132  from  the  creation,  still  leaves 
21  years,  minus  the  6000.  There  are,  however,  three  other 
numbers  of  the  'more  sure  word  of  prophecy,'  which,  as 
in  the  other  instance,  calculating  the  present  as  A.  D.  1842, 
defines  the  period  when  '  the  mystery  OF  God'  in  Prov- 
idence and  Redemption  shall  be  '  finished.'  These  are 
the  three  following  numbers  of  Daniel  12  :  7,  11,  12,  viz., 
'a  time,  times,  and  a  half,'  or  1260  years, — 1290  years, — 
and  1335  years."  —  pp.  241-2. 

"Now,  as  the  1260  years  refers  to  the  duration  of  the  Papal 
dominion  in  its  consolidated  form,  and  1793  marks  the 
period  of  the  commencement  of  its  overthrow  ;  so,  counting 
the   1335   years   from  A.  D.  533,  it  brings  us  down  to 


THE    EPOCH    OF    1847.  G3 


A.  I).  1868,  the  time  of  the  commencement  of  millennial 
blessedness  as  portrayed  by  Daniel  12:  12,  13;  as  the 
period  of  consummated  ruin  to  the  confederated  Papal.  Infi- 
del, and  despotic  Anti-Christian  power.  But,  this  inter- 
vening 75  years  from  A.  D.  1793  to  A.  D.  18G8  being 
divided,  as  above,  into  tico  periods  of  30  and  45  years,  the 
first  term  of  30  years  terminated  A.  D.  1822,  which  was 
signalized  by  the  following  remarkable  events,  viz., — the 
declaration  of  independence  by  the  Greeks,  and  their  conse- 
quent separation  from  Turkey,  which  resulted  in  the  resto- 
ration of  the  seat  of  the  third  empire  to  political  power; 
the  pouring  out  of  the  sixth,  vial,  and  the  preaching  of  the 
second  advent.  The  second  term  of  45  years  is  that  inter- 
val during  which  the  great  'day  of  the  Lord,'  the  day  of 
'the  end,"  is  signalized  by  'the  breaking  up  of  the  visible 
gentile  kingdoms  and  churches  (lie v.  16  :  19),  on  account 
of  their  apostasy  and  wickedness,  by  a  series  of  desolating 
judgments  foretold  distinctly  in  Dan.  2 :  34,  35,'  and  in 
the  seven  Apocalyptic  thunders  (Rev.  10 :  1— -4)  which  St. 
John  was  commanded  to  '  seal  up.'  Both  in  Daniel  and 
St.  John  these  and  similar  predictions  are  explicitly  inter- 
preted by  the  angel  as  pointing  out  Christ's  kingdom 
breaking  in.  pieces  all  the  previous  kingdoms,  and  which 
will  stand  forever. 

"  Here,  then,  is  the  complete  overthrow  of  Popery,  Ma- 
HOMETANiSM,  INFIDELITY,  and  EVERY  Opposing  kingdom. 
This  is  the  time  of  trouble.,  such  as  never  was  since  there 
was  a  nation  to  this  time;  NO,  NOR  EVER  SHALL  be. 
Heaven  prepare  us  for,  and  preserve  us  during  our  expos- 
ure to,  the  days  of  calamity  which  await  us  !" — pp.  270-1. 

Joseph  Wolff. 

Joseph  AVolif,  the  Missionary,  gives  in  his  Journal  a 
letter,  dated  in  1833,  from  a  Mussulman  of  distinction,  who 
says : 

"  I  have  received  your  second  epistle,  and  perused  its 
contents.  You  say  that  it  is  mentioned  in  the  8th  chapter 
of  Daniel,  that  Christ  would  descend  upon  earth,  after  two 
thousand  three  hundred  years  from  the  time  of  Daniel, 
"which  was  453  years  before  Christ ;  that,  having  deducted 


64  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

453  from  2300,  there  remained  1847 ;  and  the  present 
year  is  1833,  from  which  the  hitter  sum  having  been 
deducted,  there  remained  14  years,  which  is  the  period  of 
Christ's  coming."  —  Missionury  Labors^  pp.  258-9. 
In  a  letter  dated  April  20th,  1829,  Mr.  Wolff  wrote : 
"  I  proclaimed  for  two  months  to  the  Jews  the  great 
truth,  first,  that  Jesus  OF  Nazaueth  came  the  first  time 
on  earth,  despised  and  rejected  of  men,  to  die  for  poor  sin- 
ners ;  and  secondly,  that  he  will  come  again  with  glory  and 
majesty ;  and,  glorious  in  his  apparel,  and  travelling  in 
the  greatness  of  his  strength,  he  will  come  the  Son  op 
Man,  in  the  year  1847,  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and 
gather  all  the  tribes  of  Israel,  and  govern  in  person  as  man 
and  God  in  the  literal  city  of  Jerusalem,  with  his  saints, 
and  be  adored  in  the  temple,  which  Avill  be  rebuilt,  and  thus 
he  shall  govern  a  thousand  years ;  and  I.  Joseph  Wolff, 
shall  see,  with  my  own  eyes,  Al)raham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
in  their  bodies,  in  their  glorified  bodies  ;  and  I  shall  see 
thee,  Elijah,  and  thee,  Isaiah,  and  thee,  Jeremiah,  and  thee, 
David,  whose  songs  have  guided  me  to  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth. I  shall  see  you  all  here  at  Jerusalem,  where  I  am 
writing  these  lines. 

' '  These  were  the  topics  upon  which  I  spoke,  not  only 
with  Jews,  but  likewise  with  some  Mussulmans.'" 
{Signed)         "  JOSEPH  WOLFF, 
"Missionary  to  the  Jews  in  Palestine  and  Persia." 
—  Jones  on  the  Apoc,  p.  487. 

Rev.  Frederic;  Sander. 

The  Rev.  Frederic  Sander,  pastor  of  Wiclilengshausen,  in 
his  work  entitled  '-An  Attempt  at  Exposition  of  the  Rev. 
of  St.  John"  (Stuttg.,  pub.  by  J.  F.  Slunkopf,  1829), 
briefly  states  his  opinion  that  the  number  GQ^  of  Rev.  13 : 
18  are  so  many  years,  and  mark  the  duration  of  the  Papal 
power,  commencing  A.  D.  1177,  when  the  title  of  Pope 
xilexander  III.  was  generally  acknowledged,  and  ending 
Avith  A.  D.  1843.  He  then  argues  "that  the  millennial 
kingdom  may  be  expected  to  commence  in  A.  D.  1847,  and 
not  before." — Memoirs  of  Bcngel^  p.  350. 

The  next  date  which  has  been  defended  by  any  semblance 
of  argument  is 


THE    EPOCH    OF    A.  D.    1866.  65 

THE  EPOCH  OF  A.  D.  1864-6. 

Those  vrho  argue  for  this  date  arrive  at  it  mainly  by 
commencing  the  12G0  days  of  Daniel  and  John  with  the 
decree  of  Phocas  in  A.  D.  606.  The  former  number  added 
to  this  would  amount  to  1866. 

David  CnYTRiEus,  D.  D. 

One  of  the  earliest  expositors  who  referred  to  this  date 
was  David  Chytrreus,  D.  D.,  who  published  an  Apocalyptic 
Exposition  at  Wittenburg  in  A.  D.  1571.  lie  said  of  the 
1260  days,  "  If  numbered  from  A.  D.  412,  when  Alaric 
took  Rome  and  overthrew  its  empire,  the  end  will  be  in 
1672 ;  or  if  from  the  time  of  Phocas,  A.  D.  606,  when  the 
Pope's  supremacy  began,  then  the  end  may  be  expected 
A.  D.  1866." 

Foxc,  the  Martyrologist,  according  to  Mr.  Elliott,  quotes 
Arctius  of  Berne,  who  died  in  1574,  as  advancing  the 
same  idea. — Horce  Apoc,  v.  4,  p.  450. 

David  Pareus. 

In  the  "  Commentary  "  of  David  Pareus,  which  was  the 
substance  of  lectures  delivered  in  1608  to  the  Academy  of 
Heidelberg,  over  which  he  presided,  and  published  in  1615, 
the  1260  days  of  the  Gentiles  treading  the  Holy  City  he 
inclines  to  reckon  as  1260  j^ears,  beginning  from  Boniface's 
grant  of  the  title  of  universal  Bishop  to  the  Roman  Pope, 
A.  D.  606,  a  period  ending,  says  he,  A.  D.  1866.  But 
he  "  leaves  the  decision  of  this  point  with  God." 

Rev.  William  Whiston,  A.  M. 

Prof  Whiston,  the  successor  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton  in  the 
Mathematical  Professorship  at  Cambridge,  Eng.,  in  an 
essay  published  in  1706,  according  to  Mr.  Elliott,  also  dates 
the  Papal  supremacy  from  Phocas'  decree  in  606  ;  and 
he  quotes  Archbishop  Laud  as  affirming  the  same. 

Rev.  Thomas  Scott,  D.  D. 

Dr.  Scott,  the  commentator,  born   in  England  in  1747, 
was  a  post-millcnnialist,  but  looked  for  the  temporal  millen- 
nium to  commence  at  the  end  of  the  1260  years.    He  says  : 
6* 


66  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

"  The  beginning  of  these  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years 
must  be  placed  subsequent  to  the  four  first  trumpets,  on  the 
subversion  of  the  western  empire,  which  Avas  completed  A. 
D.  566.  This  made  way  for  the  Pope,  in  process  of  time, 
to  acquire  a  vast  accession  of  ecclesiastical  dominion.  He 
became  universal  Bishop  A.  D.  606,  and  was  fully  estab- 
lished as  a  temporal  prince  A.  D.  756.  Did  we  know 
exactly  at  Avhat  time  to  begin  the  twelve  hundred  and  sixty 
years,  wc  might  show  with  certainty  when  they  Avould 
terminate  ;  but  this  would  not  consist  with  that  wise  obscur- 
ity which  always  in  some  respects  rests  on  prophecies 
before  they  are  fulfilled.  Till  the  event,  therefore,  shall 
explain  this  matter,  it  must  be  left  undetermined  ;  but  per- 
haps the  beginning  of  the  rise  and  of  the  fall  of  this  anti- 
christian  tyranny,  and  the  completion  of  them,  may  both 
be  at  the  distance  of  twelve  hundred  and  sixty  years  from 
each  other,  as  in  more  than  one  way  the  Babylonish  cap- 
tivity lasted  seventy  years.  The  beginning,  however,  of 
these  years,  cannot  well  be  fixed  sooner  than  A.  D.  606, 
or  later  than  A.  D.  756."  1260  years  from  the  first  date 
would  end  in  1866.  —  Com.  on  Rev.  11:  1,  2. 

Eev.  William  Cogswell,  D.  D. 

The  late  Dr.  Cogswell,  Secretary  of  the  American 
Education  Society,  in  his  "Manual"  published  in  1836,  in 
answer  to  the  question,  "  When  will  the  Millennium  com- 
mence?" says  : 

"J.  Whenever  the  means  of  grace  are  enjoyed  and 
rendered  eifectual  throughout  the  world.  The  particular 
day  or  year  cannot,  perhaps,  be  ascertained.  Probably  it 
will  begin  before  the  seventh  thousand  years  of  the  world 
commence.  The  prophecies  of  Daniel  and  of  John  the 
Divine  lead  to  this  conclusion.  According  to  these  predic- 
tions, the  church  is  to  be  oppressed  by  Papal  superstition 
and  Mohammedan  delusion  1260  years.  These  are  to  com- 
mence, continue,  and  close  together.  The  Papal  supersti- 
tion, most  probably,  commenced  in  606,  when  Phocas  con- 
stituted the  Bishop  of  Rome  universal  Bishop,  and  Mo- 
hammed began  his  infamous  reign  the  same  year.  Add  1260 
to  606  and  it  makes  1866,  the  probable  time  for  the  com- 


THE    EPOCH    OF   A.  D.    18CG.  67 

mencement  of  the  release  of  the  church,  and  of  the  de- 
struction of  her  enemies.  About  this  time  the  Jews  and 
the  Gentiles  will  be  converted,  and  unite  together  in  one 
body  under  Christ,  their  spiritual  head.  Then  will  com- 
mence the  latter  day  glory  of  the  church,  the  season  of 
millennial  blessedness.  This  is  agreeable  to  the  opinion  of 
the  most  able  and  learned  modern  writers  on  the  proph- 
ecies."—  pp.  187-8. 

Rev.  Alfred  Bryant, 

The  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Niles, 
jMichigan,  sa3'^s  : 

"The  chronological  data  which  the  prophecies  give  fur- 
nish intimations  that  the  time  is  short  when  all  that  is  pre- 
dicted shall  come  to  pass. 

"  One  of  the  most  prominent  periods  fixed  for  the  term- 
ination of  the  12(30  3^cars.  so  repeatedly  brought  to  view 
in  the  prophecies  of  Daniel  and  John,  is  18G6.  This  clearly 
does  not  mark  the  time  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man, 
for  that  time  none  can  know  ;  but  according  to  prophecy, 
within  the  limits  of  some  four  years  from  that  time,  preced- 
ing or  succeeding,  may  be  expected  a  great  crisis  in  the 
political  affairs  of  the  nations,  and  great  revolutions,  which 
may  dissolve  the  relation  between  church  and  state  in  Eu- 
rope, and  have  a  most  important  bearing  upon  the  Jewish 
people,  in  preparing  the  way  for  their  ultimate  restoration 
in  part  to  their  own  land. 

"  Precisely  what  course  these  political  events  are  to  take, 
it  would  be  hazardous  to  state,  for  it  is  not  revealed ;  but 
there  is  clear  intimation  in  prophecy  that  Russia  is  yet  to 
gain  an  entire  ascendency  over  continental  Europe,  and 
have  all  the  powers  thereof  under  its  control,  in  accomplish- 
ing its  vast  schemes  of  ambition  and  war.  And  in  its  fully- 
developed  form  Russia  will  probably  constitute  the  great 
Gog  of  Scripture  —  Gog  the  prince  of  Rosh  of  Meshech  and 
Tubal,  who  is  described  by  Ezekiel,  and  who  will  be  de- 
stroyed in  the  great  battle  of  Armageddon  as  predicted. 
The  present  aspect  of  things  in  Europe  looks  suspiciously  in 
this  direction.  But,  whatever  may  be  true  in  I'cspect  to 
these  things,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  according  to  proph- 
ecy, we  are  on  the  eve  of  vast  political  revolutions,  in 


68  TUE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

•\vhicli  probably  blood  will  flow,  as  described  in  Apocalyptic 
vision.  But  these  things,  as  they  come  to  pass,  will  only 
hasten  on  the  day  of  deliverance  and  salvation. 

"  The  very  general  expectation  upon  the  minds  of  most 
persons,  that  we  are  approaching  some  great  crisis,  is  an 
indication  of  the  coming  Saviour."  —  Views  of  Mlllenna- 
rianism,  pp.  224,  225, 

Rev.  George  Stanley  Faber,  B.  D. 

Mr.  Faber,  Rector  of  Long-Newton,  in  the  county  of 
Durham,  in  his  celebrated  "Dissertation  on  the  Prophe- 
cies," says  of  the  commencement  of  the  1260  days  : 

"It  will  be  difficult  to  pitch  upon  any  era  for  the  date 
of  this  sufficiently  conspicuous  act  e.xcept  the  year  606  : 
for  in  this  and  in  the  following  year  tlie  saints  were  form- 
ally given  into  the  hand  of  the  little  horn  ;  and  the  apos- 
tasy of  individuals  became  the  embodied  and  established 
apostasy  of  a  spiritual  catholic  emj)ire^  over  which  the 
man  of  sin  presided. 

"  When  a  spiritual  universal  tyrant  then  was  set  up  in 
the  church,  and  when  idolatry  was  (immediately  upon  his 
being  thus  set  up)  openly  authorized  and  established  by  him 
the  afflicted  w^oman,  the  true  church,  seems  to  have  fled 
into  the  wilderness  from  the  pollution  of  the  holy  city  by 
the  new  gentilism  of  Popery,  and  the  icitnesses  appear  to 
have  begun  to  prophesy  in  sackcloth,  or  to  profess  the  fun- 
damental truths  of  the  Gospel  in  a  depressed  and  afflicted 
state.  Accordingly,  as  Bishop  Newton  well  observes,  and 
afterwards  satisflxctorily  proves,  '  there  have  constantly  been 
S2ich  witnesses  from  the  seventh  century '  (the  century  in 
which  the  apostasy,  considered  as  the  open  act  of  a  com- 
munity under  its  proper  head,  commenced)  '  down  to 
the  Reformation,  during  the  most  flourishing  period  of 
Popery.' 

"  Thus  it  appears  that  the  tyrannical  reign  of  the  fourth 
beasfs  little  horn,  and  consequently  the  prophetic  period 
of  1260  days,  are  most  probably  to  be  computed  from  the 
year  606,  and  will  therefore,  upon  such  a  supposition,  term- 
inate in  the  year  1866.  Let  us  next  turn  towards  the 
East,  and  see  whether  we  cannot  discover,  in  this  same 
year  606,  any  marks  of  the  completion  of  that  desolating 


1 


THE    EPOCH    OF   A.    D.    1866.  69 

oriental  revolt^  which,  when  completed  and  connected  with 
the  1ie-(joaC s  Utile  honi^  is  to  continue  during  the  same 
period  of  12G0  prophetic  days. 

'•  As  the  idolatrous  apostasy  had  long  commenced  indi- 
vidiially,  before  it  was  comi>lefedhy  receiving  an  open  estab- 
lishment in  the  West,  so  likewise  the  Eastern  revolt  had, 
in  its  main  principle,  taken  place  individually,  before  it  was 
completed  by  being  adopted  as  the  foundation  of  a  religion 
avoAvcdly  hostile  to  Christianity.  The  divinity  of  our  Lord 
had  been  impugned  by  more  than  one  sect  of  speculative 
heretics,  and  Mohammed  himself  had  conversed  with  the 
apostate  Nestorian  monk  Scrgins,  before  he  began  to  prop- 
agate that  imposture  which  so  well  merits  the  name  of  a 
desolating  revolt  ;  but  it  was  in  the  year  GOG  that  he  re- 
tired to  the  cave  of  Ilera  to  complete  the  aj)ostasy  of 
Antitrinitari((nism,  and  to  fabricate  the  false  religion, 
which  soon  after  darkened  the  whole  oriental  world,  llav- 
ing  fully  digested  his  plan  in  the  solitude  of  the  desert,  he 
began,  yet  only  in  private,  to  preach  his  lieterogeneous  sys- 
tem of  theology  about  the  year  G08  or  G09.  Mecca  was 
the  theatre  of  his  first  labors  ;  and  his  earliest  converts 
Avere  his.  wife,  his  servant,  his  pupil,  and  his  friend.  At 
length,  by  the  persuasion  of  Abubeker,  ten  of  the  most 
respectable  citizens  of  Mecca  were  introduced  to  the  private 
lessons  of  the  Islam  ;  the  prophet  persevered  ten  years  in  the 
now  more  public  exercise  of  his  mission ;  and  the  religion, 
which  has  since  overspread  so  large  a  portion  of  the  globe, 
advanced  with  a  slow  and  painful  progress  within  the  walls 
of  his  native  town. 

"  Here,  then,  avc  behold  the  desolating  revolt  of  the  East 
completed  at  the  very  time  Avhen  we  Avere  taught  by  proph- 
ecy to  expect  that  it  nould  be  completed,  namely,  at  the 
heijlnninrj  of  the  12G0  days.  ,  Small  as  it  was  at  its  com- 
pletion by  being  adopted  as  the  foundation  of  a  ncAV  reli- 
gion, and  small  as  it  Avas  at  its  first  appearance  in  the  qual- 
ity of  a  little  horn,  rising  oat  of  the  ruins  of  the  Syrian 
horn  of  the  he-goat,  it  soon  Avaxed  exceeding  great  ;  and 
in  a  very  short  space  of  time  succeeded  in  completely  pol- 
luting the  spiritual  sanctuary  of  the  Eastern  church.  The 
exact  resemblance  betAvcen  this  desolating  revolt  and  the 
religion  of  Mohammed,  in  all  other  respects  as  Avell  as  in 


70  TUE   TIME   OF  THE   END. 


their  chronological  correspondence  with  each  other,  shall  pres- 
ently be  shown :  I  shall  first,  however,  try  to  ascertain  the 
era  from  which  the  2200,  2300,  or  2400  days,  mentioned 
in  the  prophecy  of  tlce  ram  and  the  he-(joat,  are  to  be 
computed ;  and  thus  likewise  to  ascertain  the  proper  read- 
ing of  the  number."— Vol.  i.,  pp.  281,  284. 

"  Now,  if  I  be  right  in  computing  tJie  1260  days  from 
the  year  606,  the  year  in  which  t]i.e  Mohammedan  abom- 
ination commenced,  the  year  in  which  tJte  Roman  beast 
revived,  the  year  in  which  the  saints  were  given  into  the 
hand  of  the  Papal  little  horn,  the  1260  days  will  expire  in 
tJie  year  1866.  These  1260  days,  as  we  have  already  seen, 
synchronize  with  the  last  1260  days  of  the  2200,  2300,  or 
2400  days,  whichever  of  these  numbers  be  the  proper 
reading  ;  because,  as  we  are  expressly  informed  by  the  two 
interpreting  angels,  the  2200,  2300,  or  2400  days,  and  tlie 
1260  days,  both  equally  bring  us  down  to  the  time  of  the 
end,  and  consequently  terminate  together.  Such  being 
the  case,  we  have  only  to  compute  backward  2200,  2300, 
and  2400  years  from  the  year  of  onr  Lord  1866 ;  and, 
according  to  the  epoch  to  which  they  respectively  lead  us,  we 
shall  be  able  to  decide,  with  some  degree  of  probability, 
both  irhich  of  those  three  numbers  is  the  true  reading, 
and  likewise  at  what  era  we  are  to  date  the  commencement 
of  the  vision  of  the  ram  and  the  h,e-rjont. 

"  Boniface  the  Third  was  created  Pope  on  tlie  loth  of 
February,  in  the  year  606.  His  accession  took  place  in 
the  midst  of  a  quarrel  between  the  emperor  Phocas  and 
the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  ;  the  result  of  which  Avas, 
that  Phocas  forbade  the  Patriarch  to  style  himself  Universal 
Bishop,  and  conferred  that  name  exclusively  on  the  Eoman 
Pontiff".  By  computing,  therefore,  1260  ye«rs  forward  from 
the  spring  of  the  year  606,  we  shall  arrive  at  the  spring 
of  the  year  1866.  This  operation  being  performed,  if  we 
next  compute  2200  years  backward  from  the  spring 
of  tlie  year  1866,  we  shall  arrive  at  the  spring  of  the 
year  A.  C.  335 ;  if  2300  years  from  the  same  era,  at  the 
sjyring  of  the  year  A.  C.  435 ;  and  if  lastly  2400  years, 
at  tJie  spring  of  the  year  A.  C.  535.  In  making  our 
choice  among  these  three  dates,  we  must  be  guided  by  cir- 
cumstances. 


1 


THE    EPOCH    OF   A.    D.    1866.  71 

"  Both  the  year  A.  C.  335  and  the  year  A.  C.  435,  to 
■which  we  are  led  by  adopting  the  readings  of  Jerome  and 
the  Hebrew,  are  far  too  late  for  the  proper  date  of  the  vis- 
ion. They  are  each  sxihscniicnt  to  the  only  period  of 
Medo-Persian  victories  which  can  be  made  to  correspond 
with  the  piishings  of  the  rran.  Hence  it  is  plain  that  they 
would  exclude  those  pushings,  and  likewise  the  previous 
quiescent  state  of  the  ram.  Consecjucntly  they  would 
exclude  a  part  of  the  vision  ;  because  Daniel  first  saw  the 
ram  stand,  and  afterwards  saw  him  push.  Therefore  a 
period  which  comprehends  the  vholc  of  the  vision,  a  period 
which  is  the  assif/ucd  Ic/tf/th  of  the  vision,  cannot  properly 
be  computed  from  either  of  those  years ;  but  must  be  com- 
puted from  some  prior  era. 

"  On  the  other  hand,  the  spring  of  the  year  A.  C.  535, 
to  which  we  are  led  by  adopting  the  reading  of  the  LXX  or 
2400  days.  will,  if  I  mistake  not.  be  found  an  unobjectionable 
date  in  every  point  of  view.  It  synchronizes  either  with 
the  latter  end  of  the  first  year  of  Cyrus  or  with  the  begin- 
ning of  his  second  year,  according  to  the  precise  time  of 
his  accession  to  undivided  empire  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  syn- 
chronizes with  the  period  in  which  the  ram,,  now  having 
tuo  hoj'ns,  was  beginning  to  rest  from  his  previous  victo- 
ries, and  to  stand  in  a  quiescent  state  of  peaceful  settled 
government.  Nor  is  this  all.  I  have  already  observed 
that  the  greater  period  mentioned  in  the  vision  of  the 
ram  and  the  he-goat,  and  the  smaller  period  of  1260 
days,  plainly  terminate  together ;  and  I  have  likewise 
stated,  that,  according  to  the  most  natural  interpretation  of 
another  prophecy  of  Daniel,  the  Jews  will  begin  to  be  re- 
stored at  the  end  of  the  1260  duys,  and  consequently  at 
the  end  of  the  larger  period  likewise.  Now,  the  reading  of 
the  LXX,  or  2400  days,  computed  as  /  have  made  the 
computation,  will  bring  us  into  the  very  midst  of  the  restor- 
atio)i  of  the  Jews  from  Babylon.  For  in  the  second  year 
of  their  return,  and  within  a  few  months  after  their  arrival 
in  their  own  country,  they  laid  the  foundations  of  the  tem- 
ple in  the  second  month  fjar,  which  corresponds  with  the 
latter  end  of  April  and  the  beginning  of  jNIay.  Conse- 
quently, since  they  began  to  return  in  the  year  A.  C.  536, 
this  must  have  happened  in  the  spring  of  the  year  A.  C. 


72  THE   TIME    OF   THE    END. 

535.  Tluis.  unless  I  be  entirely  mistaken,  2400  years, 
the  length  of  the  ■whole  vision  of  the  rmji  and  the  he-goat, 
is  also  the  space  ^^'hich  ^vill  intervene  between  the  two  re- 
storations  of  the  Jews.  About  the  commencement  of  this 
period,  they  began  to  return  from  Babylon ;  and  exactly 
at  its  commencement,  they  laid  the  foundations  of  the 
temple ;  at  the  end  of  it,  they  will  begin  to  be  restored 
from  all  the  difiEerent  countries  of  their  present  dispersion. 
On  these  grounds,  I  much  incline  to  think  that  the  memor- 
able event  of  the  laybifj  the  foundations  of  the  second 
temple.,  at  the  close  of  the  first  or  at  the  beginning  of  the 
second  year  of  Cyrus,  afibrds  us  the  true  date  of  the  vis- 
ion; and  consequently  that  the  number  2400  is  the 
genuine  reading. 

"  The  sum  of  what  has  been  said  respecting  the  date 
of  the  1260  years  amounts,  then,  to  this :  since  the  deso- 
lating revolt  of  Mohammedism  is  to  flourish  1260 
years,  since  the  saints  are  to  be  delivered  into  the  hand 
of  the  Papal  little  horn  for  the  space  of  1260  years,  since 
the  Roman  beast  is  to  practise  prosperously  in  his  revived 
state  during  the  same  space  of  42  prophetic  months,  and 
since  the  two  horns  and  the  beast  are  all  to  perish  together 
at  the  time  of  the  end,  which  commences  at  the  termi- 
nation of  the  1260  years ;  it  seems  necessarily  to  follow, 
that  the  date  of  those  years  can  only  be  an  era  marked  by 
the  following  triple  coincidence  :  —  the  co7npletion  of  the 
eastern  revolt  by  the  7'ise  of  Mohammedism  ; — the  com- 
mencement of  the  Papal  little  horn^s  spiritual  imiversal 
JSmpire  ;  and  the  revival  of  the  Roman  beast  by  confer- 
ring upon  his  little  horn  that  spiritual  universal  empire, 
or,  in  the  language  of  prophecy.,  by  giving  the  saints  into 
his  hand.  If  therefore  we  pitch  upon  any  era  not  marked 
by  this  triple  coincidence,  we  shall  have  reason  to  suspect 
that  it  cannot  be  the  true  date  of  the  1260  years  ;  because, 
since  the  1260  years  of  Mohammedis7n,  the  126.0  yeai^s 
of  the  Papal  horn,  and  the  1260  years  of  the  revived 
Roman  beast,  all  apparently  terminate  together  at  the  time 
of  the  end,  they  must  in  that  case  all  necessarily  begin 
together. 

"  This,  however,  is  not  the  only  test  which  the  prophet  has 
given  us  to  ascertain  the  true  date  of  the  1260  years.     He 


THE    ErOCII    OF    A.  D.    1866.  73 


has  checked  (if  I  may  use  the  expression)  this  period  by 
another  hirger  period,  which  comprehends  it,  and  ^vhicll 
terminates  along  with  it.  This  hirger  period  is  stated  by 
three  different  readings  to  he  il200.  2300,  or  2400  ycirs. 

"Thus  it  appears,  that,  after  we  have  discovered  an  era 
for  the  date  of  the  1 200  years  marked  by  tlie  triple  coin- 
cidence of  the  rise  of  Mohnynmcdism,  the  giving  up  of  the 
sfti/its  into  the  hand  of  the  Papal  little  horir,  and  the 
revival  of  the  Roman  beast  by  thiis  giving  np  the  saints. 
we  must  next  examine  whether  a  computation  deduced  from 
this  era  will  make  the  larger  period  of  2200.  2300,  or 
2400  years,  and  the  smaller  pe/iod  of  12G0  years, 
rightly  correspond  together.  This  must  be  done  by  first 
computing  forward  1200  years  from  the  date  which  we 
have  pitched  upon,  and  afterwards  by  computing  backward 
2200,  2300,  and  2400  years  from  the  era  to  which  the  first 
computation  brought  us  down  :  for,  since  this  era  is  equally 
the  supposed  termination  of  both  the  periods,  it  is  evident 
that,  it"  we  compute  backAvard  from  it  the  number  of  years 
which  compose  the  larger  period,  we  shall  arrive  at  the 
beginning  of  that  period.  Three  different  numbers  of  years, 
however,  are  assigned  by  three  different  readings  to  the 
larger  period.  If.  then,  the  second  computation  backward 
from  the  era  to  which  the  first  computation  forAvard  brought 
us  doAvn  bring  us,  through  the  medium  of  any  one  of  the 
three  numbers  mentioned  by  the  three  different  readings,  to 
an  era  from  which  the  vision  of  the  ram  and  the  he-goat  may 
be  reasonably  dated,  we  shall  have  attained  to  a  very  high  de- 
gree of  probability,  both  that  that  reading  is  the  true  one,  and 
that  we  have  pitched  upon  the  right  date  of  the  1200  years, 
because  the  two  periods,  larger  and  smaller,  are  found  upon 
trial  exactly  to  check  each  other.  But  if,  on  the  contrary, 
the  second  computation  backward  from  the  era  to  which 
the  first  computation  forward  brought  us  down  do  not  bring 
us,  througli  the  medium  of  any  one  of  the  three  numbers 
mentioned  by  the  three  different  readings,  to  an  era  from 
which  the  vision  of  the  ram  and  the  hc-goat  may  be  rea- 
sonably dated,  we  may  then  be  morally  certain  that  wo 
have  not  pitched  upon  the  right  date  of  the  1200  years, 
because  the  two  periods,  larger  and  smaller,  are  not  found 
upon  trial  to  check  each  other. 
7 


74  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

"  Now,  I  am  strongly  inclined  to  believe  that  the  year 
of  our  Lord  606  is  the  only  era  which  answers  to  both 
these  tests.  It  was  in  this  year  that  the  Eastern  revolt 
was  completed  by  the  rise  of  Mohammed) sm  ;  and  it  was  in 
this  year  that  the  Roman  beast  revived  by  giving  the 
sai/its  into  the  hand  of  the  little  Papal  horn.  Moreover, 
if  we  first  compute  forward  1260  years  from  the  sprinj  of 
this  year,  Ave  shall  arrive  at  the  spring  of  the  year 
1866,  the  supposed  termination  both  of  the  larger  and 
of  the  smaller  period.  And,  if  we  next  compute  back- 
ward 2-100  years  from  the  spring  of  the  year  1866,  in 
order  to  arrive  at  the  commencement  of  the  larger  period, 
the  computation  will  bring  us  to  the  spring  of  tlie  year  A. 
C.  535,  which  is  perhaps  as  probable  a  date  as  could  have 
been  assigned  even  a  ijriori  to  the  larger  period;  for  the 
spring  of  that  year  synchronizes  either  with  the  latter  end 
o^tJie  first  year  of  Cyrus  or  with  the  beginning  of  his  second 
year,  when  the  Persian  ram  now  having  two  horns  began 
to  stand  in  a  settled  state  previous  to  his  pushings  under 
Darius,  and  when  the  foundations  of  the  second  temple  were 
laid  by  the  Jews  within  a  few  months  after  the  commence- 
ment of  their  restoration  from  the  Babylonian  captivity. 

"  The  propriety  of  fixing  upon  the  year  606  as  the  date 
of  the  1260  years  will  be  yet  further  manifest,  if  it  be 
shown  that,  to  all  appearance  at  least,  no  other  era  what- 
soever can  answer  to  the  tests  furnished  by  the  prophet. 
Mr.  Mede  supposes  that  the  1260  years  ought  to  be  com- 
puted from  the  year  455  or  456,  Avhen  the  power  of  Rome 
was  completely  broken  by  the  Vandals,  though  the  name  of 
Emperor  was  yet  continued.  Independent,  however,  of 
this  opinion's  having  been  confuted  by  the  event,  the  erro- 
neousness  of  it  might  easily  have  been  detected  even  when  it 
was  first  advanced.  The  year  456  was  neither  marked  by 
the  rise  of  any  power  which  can  be  said  to  have  completed 
the  desolating  revolt  of  the  East  and  which  answers  to 
the  description  of  the  he-goafs  little  horn,  nor  by  any 
formal  giving  up  of  the  saints  into  the  hand  of  the  Papal 
horn  ;  nor  yet,  when  it  is  checked  by  the  larger  period, 
according  to  any  one  of  its  three  readings,  Avill  it  bring  us 
to  an  era  from  which  the  vision  of  the  ram  and  the  he-goat 
can  be   reasonably  computed.     Bishop  Newton  seems  to 


THE   EPOCH    OP   A.    D.    18GG.  75 

hesitate  betAveen  the  year  727,  when  the  Pope  and  the 
Romans  finally  broke  their  connection  with  the  Eastern 
Emperor ;  the  year  155,  when  the  Pope  obtained  the  Exar- 
chate of  liaveima  ;  the  year  774,  when  he  acquired  by  the 
assistance  of  Charlemagne  the  greatest  part  of  the  kinfjdom, 
of  Lomhardy ;  and  the  year  787,  when  the  worship  of 
images  was  fully  established,  and  the  supremacy  of  the 
Pope  acknowledged  by  the  second  council  of  Nice :  of 
these  different  dates,  however,  he  is  inclined  to  prefer  tlio 
first.  Now,  upon  examination,  not  one  of  thera  will  be 
found  to  answer  to  the  tests  furnished  by  the  prophet.  In 
none  of  these  years,  except  the  last,  were  the  saints  given 
into  the  hand  of  tlie  Papal  horn  ;  and,  as  for  the  acknowl- 
edgment made  by  the  council  of  Nice,  it  was  only  a  repe- 
tition of  the  grant  already  made  by  the  sixth  head  of  the 
beast :  in  none  of  tbcm  was  any  Eastern  revolt  completed, 
that  was  in  any  way  connected  with  a  little  horn  of  the  he- 
goat  :  and  none  of  them  will  bear  to  be  checked  by  the 
larger  number  according  to  any  one  of  its  three  readings. 
There  is  yet  another  date  fixed  upon  by  Mr.  ]Mann,  which 
])rima  facie  was  more  probaljle  that  any  of  the  preceding 
ones.  About  the  year  533  or  534,  the  Emperor  Justinian 
declared  the  Pope  to  be  Head  of  all  the  churches.  Hence 
it  seemed  not  unlikely  that  the  1260  years  ougbt  to  be 
computed  from  that  era  ;  because  the  saints  might  be  consid- 
ered as  having  been  then  formally  given  into  the  hand  of  the 
little  horn.  That  such  a  title  was  conferred  upon  the  Pope 
about  that  time,  may  be  very  true ;  but  I  am  much  inclined 
to  think  that  Mr.  Mann  has  greatly  mistaken  the  nature  of 
Justinian's  grant,  and  that  no  authority  was  then  given  to 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  which  at  all  corresponds  with  the  idea 
of  universal  episcopacy.  Phocas  declared  the  Pope  to  be 
at  once  Head  of  all  the  churches,  which  is  a  title  of  prece- 
dence and  dignity,  and  sole  universal  Bishop,  which  is  a 
title  of  authority,  because  he  forbade  all  the  other  Patriarchs 
to  assume  it :  whereas,  although  Justinian  conferred  upon 
him  the  first  of  these  titles,  yet  at  the  very  same  time  he 
styled  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople  Head  of  all  the 
other  churches.  A  comparison  is  accordingly  drawn  very 
judiciously  by  Brightman  between  the  grant  of  Justinian  and 
the  grant  of  Phocas ;  in  which  he  states  that  the  former 


76  THE  TIME  OF  THE  END. 

merely  gave  the  Pope  precedence  of  all  his  episcopal  breth- 
ren, but  that  the  latter  exclusively  constituted  him  univer- 
sal JVisho])^  assigning  to  him  the  -syhole  world  for  his  dio- 
cese. That  this  was  really  the  case7  any  person  may  satisfy 
himself  by  consulting  the  NoccUai.'^ — II).,  pp.  287-300. 

Rev.  John  Cumjiing,  D.D. 

The  eloquent  Dr.  Camming,  minister  of  the  Scottish 
National  Church,  Crown  Court,  Covent  Garden,  London, 
says  of  the  Second  Advent:* 

"I  know  not  the  times  and  the  seasons;  he  comes  at  an 
hour  men  think  not.  The  periods  of  prophetic  chronology 
are  all  rapidly  converging.  The  great  epochs  of  Daniel, 
the  grand  eras  of  the  Apocalypse,  as  has  been  shown,  all 
terminate  about  the  year  1864.  Reader,  do  not  take  up 
the  idea  that  we  assert  that  Christ  comes  in  that  year.  All 
we  allege  is,  that  the  great  prophetic  epochs  converge  just 
about  that  time;  and,  according  to  Clinton's  chronology,  in 
his  'Fasti  Hellenici,'  the  most  able  adjustment  of  the  chro- 
nology of  the  world  that  has  issued  from  the  pen  of  any, 
he  demonstrates,  not  guesses,  that  the  six  thousand  years  of 
the  world  terminate  about  1863 ;  and  then,  that  186-4  or 
1865  begins  the  seventh  millenary  of  the  world.  N*w, 
the  Jews  looked  to  the  seventh  thousandth  year  of  the 
world  as  the  great  aixr]rl<tTi(juni,  or  the  great  sabbatic  rest 
of  the  people  of  God.  Account  for  it  as  we  like,  it  is 
singular  that  the  great  epochs  of  prophecy  should  all  con- 
verge at  that  time.  Do  any  say  that  before  prophecy  is 
fulfilled  great  things  are  to  be  done  ?  It  is  true.  Let  any 
person  notice  the  difference  between  the  way  in  which  things 
are  done  now  and  the  way  in  which  they  were  done  thirty 
years  ago, —  let  him  note  the  speed  with  which  events  rush 
on,  compared  with  the  sober  pace  with  which  they  moved  in 
stately  procession  many  years  ago, —  and  he  will  see  that 
events  are  now  consummated  in  years  which  it  took  centuries 
to  ripen  before.  It  is  as  if  the  wheel  revolved  more  rapidly 
on  its  axle  before  it  came  to  the  bottom  of  the  hill.  It 
seems  as  if  everybody  moved  by  express,  and  believed  they 
should  not  be  able  to  finish  their  mission  before  that  night 
comes  when  no  man  can  work.     The  omens  and  auguries  of 

*  See  also  p.  245. 


THE   EPOCH   OF  A.   D.   18C8.  77 

an  approaching  crisis  arc  so  thick,  and  so  vivid,  and  so 
remarkable,  that  there  is  not  a  distinguished  thinking  states- 
man in  Europe  that  docs  not  feel  afraid  to  look  into  that 
unsounded  but  opening  future  that  is  before  Europe,  our 
country,  and  mankind.''  —  Benedictions,  pp.  181,  182. 

The  Rev.  E.  B.  Elliott,  A.M. 

Mr.  Elliott,  late  Vicar  of  Tuxford,  and  Fellow  of 
Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  in  his  Horoe  xVpocalypticaj 
(London,  4  vols.)  gives  the  arguments  on  which  Dr.  Cum- 
ming  bases  his  opinions,  and  which  will  be  found  on  another 
page,  under  the  head  of  "Our  Present  Position  in  the 
Prophetic  Calendar. ' '  * 

THE  EPOCH  OF  A.D.  1868. 
The  Rev.  Edward  Bickersteth, 

Rector  of  Watton,  Herts,  England,  in  his  "Practical  Guide 
to  the  Prophecies,"  puldished  in  London  in  1836,  says: 

"It  may  be  useful  to  refer  the  reader  to  certain  spe- 
cific DATES  which  have  been  supposed  to  be  near  their 
close.  The  circumstance  of  so  many  scriptural  dates 
having  probable  terminations  about  the  same  time,  and  the 
possibility  that  these  terminations  may  be  near,  both  calls 
for  attention,  and,  in  proportion  as  we  see  they  have  a  real 
foundation,  they  are  well  calculated  to  impress  our  minds 
and  increase  our  watchfulness.  Yet  the  author  would  be 
far  from  dofrmatizing  on  such  dates. 

"12G0   years.  — llev.  13:  5. 

"  f213]f  This  date  occurs  frequently,  and  in  three  different 
forms.  Dan.  7  :  23 — 25,  time,  times,  and  dividing  of  a  time  ; 
Rev.  12:  6,  12G0  days;  Rev.  13  :  5,  forty-two  months. 
All,  after  the  length  of  the  Jewish  year  and  month,  point  out 
1260.     Tiiis  date  refers  to  the  duration  of  Popery. 

"If  we  take  its  rise  in  533,  it  reaches  to  1703,  when 
Popery  began  to  fall.  If  we  take  its  fuller  establishment 
(Rev.  11 :  2 ;  13 :  8)  in  608  to  its  final  fall,  it  reaches 
1868.     The  interval  is  seventy-five  years. 

♦  See  p.  89.  t  Page  of  the  Englisli  edition. 


78  *  THE    TIME    OF   THE    END. 

"G66.— Rev.   13:  18. 

"  This,  by  the  Lutheran  expositors,  has  been  considered  as 
a  name  of  date,  as  well  as  of  person  and  character. 

"Three  words  seem  specially  intended  to  beset  before 
us,  as  having  Greek  letters  that  make  G66  : 

^^AuTfivoi.  —  The  king  who  gave  name  to  the  Latin 
empire. 

"-'/.To«r«Txs.  —  The  character  of  the  power  ruling  it. 

"  7/  hnii'x  fiuidetu.  —  The  Only  Greek  name  of  an  empire 
among  two  or  three  thousand  that  has  the  number  G6Q. 

"  If  taken  as  a  date.  — We  have  before  12G0  days,  a  date 
veiled  under  a  mystery,  and  afterwards  an  explicit  1000 
years.  In  066  the  mystery  begins  to  break, —  the  number 
of  a  man  counted  by  Imman  reckoning. 

"If  taken  as  a  period  both  of  rise  and  fall.  —  In  its  rise 
from  533,  G6Q  brings  us  to  1198-9,  the  time  of  Inno- 
cent III.  Popery  was  then  at  its  height ;  the  inquisition 
was  established ;  there  w^as  a  crusade  [214]  against  the 
Albigenses,  and  the  number  was  applied  by  that  Pope  to 
Mohammedanism,  as  expected  to  be  then  near  its  end  from 
the  time  of  its  rise. 

"From  1198-9,  666  brings  us  to  1864,  just  before 
Daniel's  time  of  blessedness,  leaving  us  only  a  period  of 
half  a  week,  mentioned  in  Daniel  9 :  27,  for  the  infidel 
persecution,  from  which  the  Philadelphian  church  was  saved 
(Rev.  3  :  10  ;  18  :  20) ;  but  the  Laodicean  part  left  in  it 
to  be  purified,  and  to  be  the  last  gathering  of  the  church  to 
the  marriage  supper. 

"2300.— Daniel  8:  13. 

"There  are  two  things  in  this  number, —  the  restoration 
of  the  daily  sacrifice,  and  the  time  of  the  desolation.  The 
first,  the  restoration  of  the  daily  sacrifice,  was  to  be  deter- 
mined, or  rather  cut  off  (nr;n:i,  Dan.  9  :  24)  from  the  2300 
years  to  the  completion  of  the  perfect  sacrifice  of  Christ. 

"If  this  2300  years  be  taken  from  Ezra's  decree,  457 
years  before  Christ,  it  will  bring  us  to  1843,  the  beginning 
of  the  cleansing  of  the  sanctuary,  and  of  the  restoration  of 
the  Jews,  and  of  the  approach  of  the  great  tribulation.     If 


THE   EPOCH    OF   A.    D.    1873.  79 

taken   from  Nehemiah's  completed  cleansing  in  433-4,  it 
■svill  bring  us  to  18G7-8,  the  completed  Jewish  restoration. 

"390.  — Ezek.  4:5;  Rev.  9:  15. 

"  This  might  be  rendered  (Rev.  9  :  15),  The  four  angels 
prepared  against  (f(«)  the  hour  and  day  (the  hour  of  judg- 
ment and  the  day  of  wrath)  were  loosed  for  a  month  and 
a  year  (^i/ui'/oi ),  that  is,  390  years. 

"If  this  390  years  commence  in  1063,  the  beginning  of 
the  Turkish  power,  it  will  bring  us  to  1453,  the  height  of 
their  jwwer  in  the  fall  of  Constantinople.  [215]  And,  if 
taken  onward,  it  will  bring  us  to  1843,  the  time  of  the  fall 
of  the  Turkish  empire. 

"1290  and  1335.  — Dan.  12:  11,  12. 

"These  years  date  from  the  time  that  the  daily  sacrifice 
shall  be  taken  away,  and  the  abomination  that  maketh  deso- 
late set  up.  This  is  connected,  also,  with  the  ti»ie^  limes, 
and  a  /ift/f,  verse  7.  It  is  the  spiritual  aspect  of,  and  the 
counterpart  to,  the  interruption  of  the  temple  service  and 
the  daily  worship;  or  the  rise  of  Popery  in  the  Christian 
church,  A.  D.  533. 

"  From  533,  the  period  of  1290  would  bring  us  to  1822, 
which  is  remarkable  for  the  separation  of  Greece  from 
Turkey,  the  pouring  out  of  the  sixth  vial,  and  the  preach- 
ing of  the  second  advent. 

"  From  533,  the  period  of  1335  years  would  bring  us  to 
1868,  as  the  commencement  of  the  full  blessedness  of  the 
earth.'"  — pp.  145,  146  of  Amer.  Ed. 

THE  EPOCH  OF  A.  D.  1873. 

This  is  an  epoch  assigned  for  the  termination  of  the  2300 
days  of  Daniel,  by  J.  A.  Brown,  in  his  "Even  Tide,"  2 
vols.,  published  in  London  in  1823.  He  commences  the 
period  referred  to  with  the  second  visit  of  Nehemiah  to 
Jerusalem,  which  he  places  in  B.  C.  428.  Reckoning  them 
from  that  point,  he  would  terminate  them  in  1873,  where 
he  also  ends  1290  years  of  the  Mohammedan  Hegira.  He, 
however,  reckons  lunar  instead  of  solar  years. 


6AUC011EGE  LIBRARY 


80  TUE   TIME    OF  THE   END. 


THE  EPOCH  A.  D.  1880. 

This  is  the  epoch  of  the  Rev.  Wm.  Hales,  D.  D.,  the  dis- 
tinguished chronologer,  and  is  based,  like  that  of  1843  and 
1847,  on  a  supposed  connection  of  the  70  weeks  and  2300 
days.  The  argument  of  Dr.  Hales  is  as  follows.  Speaking 
of  the  vision  in  the  8th  of  Daniel,  he  says : 

"  And  he  was  astonished  at  the  vision  ;  but  '  none  under- 
stood' how  the  daily  sacrifice  should  be  taken  away,  or 
when  the  period  of  2300  days  should  begin  or  end. 

"  Three  years  after,  a  further  insight  into  the  last  myste- 
rious vision  was  given  to  the  prophet,  immediately  after  his 
admirable  prayer  and  confession  of  his  own  sins,  and  the 
sins  of  his  people,  and  supplication  for  the  holy  mountain 
of  his  God ;  that  his  people  might  be  restored  from  the 
Babylonian  captivity,  now  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the  city 
be  rebuilt ;  '  yea,  while  I  was  speaking  in  prayer,  even  the 
man  Gabriel,  whom  I  had  seen  in  the  foregoing  vision 
(8 :  16),  flying  swiftly^  touched  me  about  the  time  of 
the  evening  oblation,  and  informed  me,  and  spake  to  me, 
and  said : 

"  '  0  Daniel,  I  am  now  come  forth  to  give  thee  under- 
standing and  information. 

"  'At  the  beginning  of  thy  supplications,  the  Okacle 
came  forth ;  and  I  am  come  to  tell  thee  [His  response]  ; 
for  thou  art  greatly  beloved.  Therefore  consider  the  matter, 
and  understand  the  visioii. 

"  '  THE  PROPHECY  OF  THE  SEVENTY  WEEKS. 

"  '  Seventy  weeks  are  determined  upon  thy  peoj^le,  and 
upon  thy  holy  city :  to  complete  the  transgression,  and 
consunimate  sins ;  to  expiate  iniqiiity,  and  introduce 
everlasting  righteousness ;  and  to  seal  up  vision  and 
prophecy,  and  anoint  the  Saint  op  saints.  " 

"  '  Know,  then,  and  nnderstand : 

"  '  From  the  going  forth  of  the  Oracle  to  restore  [thy 
people],  and  to  rebuild  Jerusalem,  until  Messiah  the 
Leader,  shall  be  seven  weeks  and  sixty-two  weeks. 

"  '  Thou  shalt  return  [and  thy  people,  at  the  end  of 
the  vision  of  2300  days],  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  rehiilt ; 


TUE    EPOCH    OF    A.  D.   1880.  81 


both  the  street  and  the  breach  [of  the  wall],  even  in  strait- 
ness  of  times. 

"  '  And  after  the  siiiy-iwo  "vvceks  shall  Messiah  be  cut 
off;  and  [thy  ])coj)k]  shall  not  be  77/5 :  a  people  of  THE 
Leader  to  come  shall  destroy  both  the  city  and  tJie  sanc- 
tuary ;  and  its  end  shall  be  in  a  deluge.  And  until  the 
end  of  the  war,  desolations  are  decreed. 

"  '  But  one  ireeic  shall  establish  a  [new]  covenant  with 
many  :  and  half  of  the  ircc/c  shall  abrogate  the  [daily] 
sarrijice  and  oblation.  And  upon  the  pinnacle  [or  battle- 
ment of  the  temple  shall  stand]  tlic  ahoniinalion.  of  deso- 
lation, even  until  the  consummation  [of  the  2o00  days] ; 
but  then  the  decreed  [desolation]  shall  be  poured  [in  turn] 
upon  the  Desolator.^ 

"This  chronological  prophecy  (wliich  I  have  attempted 
to  render  more  closely  and  intelligibly,  supplying  the  ellip- 
sis necessary  to  complete  the  sense  of  the  concise  original) 
was  evidently  designed  to  explain  the  foregoing  vision, 
especially  in  its  chronolofjiatl  part  of  the  2800  days ;  at 
the  end  of  which  the  predicted  *  desolation  of  the  Jews ' 
should  cease,  and  their  ^sanctuary  be  clea}ised,^  or  ihe'ir 
temple  finally  be  rebuilt ;  by  determining  a  certain  fi.xed 
point  or  epoch  within  it, —  namelj'^,  the  destruction  of  the  city 
and  temple  of  Jcrusalcni  by  the  Romans,  A.  D.  70 ;  for, 
counting  backwards  from  thence  seventy  weeks  of  days,  or 
70X7=400  years,  we  get  the  beginning  of  the  period,  B. 
C.  420 ;  and,  this  being  known,  the  end  of  the  period,  also, 
A.  D.  1880  ;  for  420+1880=2^0.         .   -  ^A 

"The  destruction  of  Jernsalem,  therefore,  divides  the 
whole  period  into  two  unequal  parts ;  the  former,  consisting 
of  4U0  years,  beginning  13.  C.  420 ;  the  latter,  of  1810 
years,  ending  A.  1).  1880. 

"I.  The  former  part,  and  its  divisions,  noticed  in  this 
vision,  are  first  to  be  considered. 

"  1.  The  seventy  weeks,  or  490  years,  of  which  it  con- 
sists, are  historically  divivided  into  62,  7,  and  1  weeks ; 
and  the  one  week  subdivided  into  a  half-week.  At  the 
expiration  of  G2-|-7=69  weeks,  or  483  years,  Messiah 
THE  Leader  w:is  to  send  forth  '  his  armies  (the  Romans^ 
to  destroy  those  murderers  (the  Joes),  and  to  burn  their 
city,"  (Matt.  22  :    7).     And,  accordingly,  the  Jewish  war 


82  THE   TIME    OF    THE    END. 

commenced  in  the  last,  or  seventieth  -week,  B.  C.  65,  during 
the  administration  of  Gessius  I'Vorus,  ■wliose  exactions 
drove  the  Jews  into  rebellion,  according  to  Josejj/itis,  Ant. 
XX.  10,  1. 

"2.  'After  the  62  weeks,'  but  not  immediately,  'the 
Messiah  was  cict  off ;^  for  the  62  weeks  expired  A.  D.  14 ; 
and  the  one  week,  or  Pasaioii  week,  in  the  midst  of  which 
OUR  Lord  was  crucified,  A.  D.  31,  began  with  his  public 
ministry,  A.  D.  28,  and  ended  with  the  martyrdom  of 
Stephen,  A.  D.  34,  (See  the  Articles  of  tue  Ministry 
OF  Christ,  and  Gospel  Chronology,  vol  i.,  pp.  199-206, 
in  which  is  given  the  luminous  account  of  the  Passion 
week,  in  reference  to  DanieVs  prophecy,  by  Euse/jii/s.) 
The  Passion  week,  therefore,  began  two  weeks  after  the 
sixty-two  weeks,  or  at  the  end  of  sixty-four  weeks ;  and 
there  were  five  weeks,  or  thirty-five  years,  after  the  passion 
week,  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  So  that  the  seventy 
weeks  must  be  cJu^oriolocjicalhj  divided  into  sixty-four,  one, 
and  five  weeks.  For  the  one  week  in  the  prophecy  is 
evidently  not  the  last  week  of  the  Jewish  war,  and  cannot, 
therefore,  follow,  in  the  order  of  time,  the  sixty-two  and 
seven  weeks. 

"The  magnificent  opening  of  the  prophecy  itself  seems 
to  blend  the  fortunes  of  the  Jeirs  and  of  mankind  together 
in  the  important  period  destined, —  1.  '  To  complete  the 
transgression,  and  consummate  the  sins '  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  '  when  their  transgressions  should  come  to  the  full,' 
or  they  should  '  fill  up  the  measure  of  the  iniquity  of  their 
forefathers  (Matt.  23:  32),  by  rejecting  and  'cutting  off' 
the  Messiah  (Isa.  53 :  8  ;  Acts  2  :  23 ;  3  :  13-15 ;  5 : 
30,  31).  2,  'To  cover,  or  expiate  the  iniquity'  of  the 
human  race,  by  the  voluntary  sacrifice  of  himself  (Isa. 
53  :  4-6  ;  1  Pet.  1 :  19  ;  Heb.  9  :  26  ;  John  1 :  29,  &c.), 
and  also  'to  introduce  everlastin"i;  ricfhteousness,'  during 
'  the  kinfjdoni  of  THE  GoD  OF  HEAVEN,'  and  o'i  his  saints, 
which  he  was  to  found  and  establish  upon  earth ;  thence  to 
be  translated  to  heaven  at  the  end  of  the  world  (Dan.  7 : 
13,  14,  &c.;  1  Cor.  15  :  23-28,  &c.).  And  3.  '  To  seal,  or 
close  prophetic  vision,'  when  the  grand  scheme  of  Divine 
economy,  in  the  Patriarchal,  Mosaical,  and  Evangelical 
dispensations,  should  be  sufficiently  revealed  to  mankind  by 


THE   EPOCH    OF  A.  D.    18S0.  83 

OUR  Lord  and  his  apostles,  before  the  end  of  the  seventy 
weeks ;  after  '  the  Saixt  of  saints  should,  on  his  resur- 
rection, be  anointed,'  or  '  invested  with  all  authority  in 
heaven  and  earth'  (Matt.  28  :  Rom.  1 :  4,  &c.). 

"' The  decree  of  THE  Oracle  for  restoring  the  Jeics, 
and  rebuilding  Jrn/salc/n,^  could  not  refer  to  their  return 
from  the  Jjohylonish  captivity,  which  was  now  past,  and 
the  city  rebuilt  by  Nchemiah^  long  before  the  commence- 
ment of  the  prophecy,  B.  C.  420,  in  the  fourth  year  of 
Darius  Nothus ;  it  must,  therefore,  relate  to  the  Jiual 
restoration  of  the  Jews  and  rebuilding  of  their  city,  after 
the  long-continued  desolation  which  was  to  follow  the  Roman 
captivity,  and  to  end  Avith  the  period  of  2300  days.  Then 
folloAvs  a  parenthetical  apostrophe  to  the  prophet  himself, 
foretelling  his  (and  his  people's)  final  return,  at  '  the  end  of 
the  2300  days,'  or  '  resurrection  of  the  just '  (Dan.  12:  18  ; 
Luke  14  :  14,  &c.),  analogous  to  the  parenthetical  remark 
in  Nathan^ s  prophecy  to  the  same  effect  (2  Sam.  7  :  10), 
and  the  rebuilding  of  the  city  (Isa.  60  :  10 ;  Ezek.  48  : 
30;  Zech.  2:4). 

"  When  the  Jeirs  should  reject  and  cut  off  THE  Messiah, 
they  should  also  be  rejected  by  him,  and  'no  longer  his^ 
peculiar  people,  as  expressly  foretold  by  Moses  (Deut.  32 : 
5,  more  correctly  translated),  and  by  the  2)rophets  (Hosea 
1 :  9,  kc),  until  their  final  adoption  (Zech.  8 :  8) ;  and 
'the  Roman  armies''  were  to  be  sent,  as  'people  of  Mes- 
siah TO  COME '  in  judgment,  in  order  to  be  the  executioners 
of  indignation  against  that  '  wicked  and  apostate  genera- 
tion '  of  the  Jews  (Matt.  23 :  35,  30). 

"  '  The  abojnination  of  desolation  '  were  the  desolating 
standards  of  the  Roman  armies,  which  were  held  in  abom- 
ination by  the  Jews,  on  account  of  the  idolatrous  worship 
paid  to  the  images  of  their  gods  which  they  displayed.  The 
phrase  occurs  in  the  same  sense  afterwards  (11 :  31 ;  12  : 
11)  :  and  its  signification  is  ascertained  by  OUR  Lord  him- 
self, in  his  reference  to,  and  citation  of,  this  very  prophecy 
of  Daniel  (Matt.  24:  15),  as  explained  of  'the  Roman 
e)icam])7ncnfs  hesicging  Jerusalem'  (Luke  21:  20).  This 
testimony  of  our  Lord  himself  is  decisive  to  prove  that  the 
seventy  weeks  expired  with  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
A.  D.  70,  and,  consequently,  that  they  began  B.  C.  420. 


84  THE   TIME    OF    THE   END. 

And  the  fourth  and  last  vision  of  Daniel  is  also  decisive  to 
prove  that  the  joint  beginning  of  the  2300  days,  and  sev- 
enty Avecks,  was  in  the  reign  of  Darii/s  Notlius  (11 : 
1,  2)." — New  Anal.  C/iron.,  pp.  559-5GG. 

The  1290  and  1335  days  of  the  12th  of  Daniel,  Dr. 
Hales  commences  with  the  literal  taking  away  of  the  daily 
sacrifice,  by  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  in  A.  D.  70. 
The  former  he  terminates  in  13G0,  the  epoch  of  Wickliffe, 
Avho  "began  to  make  a  noise  in  1360,  by  strongly  opposing 
the  attempts  of  the  monks,  Avho.  under  color  of  their 
exemptions,  violated  the  rules  and  statutes  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford"'  {U Enfant,  Concile  cle  Constance, 
torn.  1,  p.  201).  And  the  latter  he  terminates  in  A.  D. 
1405,  quoting  from  the  same  writer, —  "John  IIuss  ren- 
dered himself  very  famous  in  1405  by  his  preaching  in 
Bohemia,"  &c.  Dr.  Hales  says:  "The  author  of  Sacrce 
Heptades,  or  a  Treatise  on  DunieVs  seventy  weeks,  cited 
by  the  learned  Whlsto/i,  in  his  Treatise  on  the  Kevelatioti, 
in  1706  (p.  240),  explains  it  in  the  same  way. 

"This  simple  and  obvious  solution,  adopted  by  Whiston 
above  a  hundred  years  ago,  has  been  strangely  overlooked 
by  succeeding  commentators,  down  to  the  present  time ;  ar- 
bitrarily assuming  that  the  1290  and  1335  days  began 
along  with  the  1260.  Hence,  Faher^s  perplexities,  and 
new  coinage  of  '  the  aflerhood  of  the  times.'  " 

The  1260  days  of  Daniel,  and  John,  however,  he  com- 
mences in  A.  D.  620,  and  terminates  them  in  1880. 
Speaking  of  the  period  in  the  7th  of  Daniel,  he  says : 

"A  time,  in  the  Chaldee  language,  frequently  signifies  a 
year  ;  and  is  so  understood  by  Daniel  himself  (4  :  25-34)  ; 
and  in  the  phrase  'at  the  end  of  the  times,  even  of  years,' 
which  is  paraphrased  in  the  English  Bible,  '  after  certain 
years^  (H  •  1"^) ;  the  period,  therefore,  denotes  three 
years  and  half,  or  forty-two  months,  or  (allowing  thirty 
days  to  the  primitive  month)  1260  days,  as  this  myste- 
rious period  is  explained  in  the  Apocalypse  (Rev.  12  :  14 ; 
11:  2,  3;  12:  6).  This  woful  period  of  persecution  is 
to  expire  along  with  the  grand  period  in  A.  D.  1880 ; 
'after  which,  the  holy  people,  or  saints,  are  to  be  deliv- 
ered.' Tlierefore,  counting  backwards  from  thence,  we 
get  A.  D.  620  for  the  time  of  its  commencement :   which 


TUE    EPOCH    OF   A.    D.    1880.  85 

corresponds,  as  we  have  seen,  with  the  Baugorian  war  in 
Britain. 

"It is  truly  remarkable  that  the  MafLonimetan  power  in 
the  East  sprung  up  the  very  same  year ;  for  '  tlic  false 
projihet,''  as  JMaliomct  is  styled  in  the  Apocalypse,  in  A. 
D.  020  or  C)21,  liroachcd  his  celebrated  journey  to  heaven 
in  company  with  tlie  angel  Gabriel^  which  was  so  ill  re- 
ceived by  his  countrjMuen  at  first,  that  he  was  forced  to  lly 
from  Mecca,  A.  D.  622,  whence  the  Arabian  era  of  the 
hcrjira  ('flight')  commenced;  upon  which  he  published  his 
commission  from  God,  in  the  Koran,  to  persecute  infideh. 

*'  The  joint  persecutions  of  the  Eastern  and  Western  a})os- 
tasy  are  foretold  in  the  Apocalypse,  chap.  13,  as  will  be 
shown  in  the  sequel. 

"This  commencement  of  the  12G0  days,  analytically 
deduced,  by  a  chain  of  reasoning  from  the  context,  is  surely 
preferable  to  A.  D.  GOG,  adopted  by  Bishop  Neu-ton, 
Fabcr,  and  others,  upon  the  hypothetical  ground  that  this 
was  the  year  in  which  the  title  of  Universal  Bishop  was 
conferred  on  the  Pope  by  the  usurper  Phocas ;  and  the 
same  year,  also,  in  which  Mahomet  retired  to  his  cave  in 
Mount  Hara,  to  fabricate  his  imposture." — lb.,  p.  5G7. 


The  foregoing  arc  the  epochs  which  have  been  advocated, 
by  able  and  gifted  minds,  as  those  which  should  witness  the 
ushering  in  of  the  Millennium.  We  have  presented  them, 
with  the  reasons  given  in  their  support.  Some  of  them  are 
past,  and  the  others  arc  approaching.  We  prefer  not  to 
dogmatize  on  this  subject,  but  to  let  each  one  draw  his  own 
conclusions;  and  perhaps  additional  light  may  yet  be  given 
to  illumine  the  obscurity  which  may  still  enshroud  the 
subject. 

In  illustration  of  the  preceding  pages,  which  are  designed 
as  introductory  to  tiie  extracts  from  the  pens  of  the  distin- 
guished authors  which  follow,  the  attention  of  the  reader  is 
solicited  to  the  following  abstract  of  the  Rev.  E.  B.  Elliott's 
Exposition  of  the  Apocalypse,  as  given  by  himself  in  his 
concluding  chapter,  which  is  copied  entire,  with  all  his 
notes,  historical  and  critical.  After  which  are  inserted 
some  of  the  more  important  of  the  lectures  of  Dr.  Cumming, 
and  important  papers  from  other  writers. 
S 


THB 


CONCLUDING   CHAPTER 


Mil.  ELLIOTT'S  GIIEAT  WORK 


APOCALYPSE. 


CONCLUDING    CHAPTER 

OF 

E.  B.  ELLIOTT'S  HORyE  APOCALYPTICA. 


Artiived  at  the  concluding  chapter  of  ray  -vvork,  it  Avill 
be  well  to  stop,  and  consider  attentively  our  present  event- 
ful position  in  prophetic  chronology,  and  the  evidence 
Avhich  fixes  it :  —  then  to  direct  our  regai-ds  to  the  coming 
future ;  and  consider  it  in  the  light,  and  connectedly  ■with 
the  lessons,  suggested  by  the  previous  parts  of  the  Apoca- 
lyptic prophecy.  Each  of  these  subjects  will  furnish  ample 
matter  for  a  separate  Section. 

§  1.     OUR    PRESENT    POSITION    IN    THE    PROPHETIC 
CALENDAR. 

With  regard  to  our  present  position,  Ave  have  been  led, 
as  the  result  of  our  investigations,  to  fix  it  at  but  a  short 
time  from  the  end  of  the  now  existing  dispensation,  and 
the  expected  second  advent  of  Christ.  This  thought,  wlicn 
Avc  seriously  attempt  to  realize  it,  must  be  felt  to  be  a  very 
startling  as  well  as  solemn  one.  And  for  my  own  part  I 
confess  to  risings  of  doubt,  and  almost  of  scepticism,  as  I 
do  so.  Can  it  be  that  we  are  come  so  near  to  the  day  of 
the  Son  of  man,  that  the  generation  now  alive  shall  very 
possibly  not  have  passed  away  before  its  fulfilment :  yea, 
that  perhaps  even  our  own  eyes  may  witness,  without  the 
intervention  of  death,  that  astonishing  event  of  the  con- 
summation ?  The  idea  falls  on  my  mind  as  almost  incredi- 
ble. The  circumstance  of  anticipations  having  been  so 
often  formed  quite  erroneously  heretofore  of  the  proximity 
of  the  consummation, —  for  example,  in  the  apostolic  age, 
before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,*  —  then  during  the 
pei*secutions  of  Pagan  Ilome,t  then  upon  the  breaking  up 
of  the  old  Roman  Empire,  J —  then  at  the  close  of  the  tenth 

*  See  my  Vol.  i.,  p.  62.  t  So  Vol.  i.,  pp.  210,  214—217. 

t  See  Vol.  i.,  pp.  3G2— 372. 
o* 


90  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION. 

century,*  —  then  at  and  after  the  Reformation,!  —  and,  still 
later,  even  by  writers  of  our  own  day, —  I  say  the  circum- 
stance of  all  these  numerous  anticipations  having  been 
formed  and  zealously  promulgated  of  the  imminence  of  the 
second  advent,  which,  notwithstanding,  have  by  the  event 
itself  been  shown  to  be  unfounded,  strongly  tends  to  con- 
firm us  in  our  doubts  and  incredulity.  Yet  to  rest  in 
scepticism  simply  and  altogether  upon  such  grounds  would 
be  evidently  bad  philosophy.  For  these  are  causes  that 
would  operate  always :  and  that  would  make  us  be  saying, 
up  to  the  very  eve  and  moment  of  the  advent,  "  Where  is 
the  promise  of  his  coming  ? "  Our  true  wisdom  is  to  test 
each  link  of  the  chain  of  evidence  by  which  we  have  been 
led  to  our  conclusion,  and  see  whether  it  Avill  bear  the 
testing ;  —  to  examine  into  the  causes  of  previous  demon- 
strated errors  on  the  subject,  and  see  whether  we  avoid 
them  ; — finally,  to  consider  whether  the  signs  of  the  times 
now  present  be  in  all  the  sundry  points  that  prophecy 
points  out  so  peculiar  as  to  warrant  a  measure  of  confi- 
dence in  our  inference  such  as  was  never  warranted  before. 

And,  certainly,  on  doing  this,  it  does  seem  to  me  that 
the  grounds  of  our  conclusion  are  stable.  For  let  us  look 
backward  over  the  path  we  have  travelled ;  and,  in  rapid 
retrospective  review,  call  to  mind  the  evidence,  step  by  step, 
on  which  our  argument  has  proceeded.  A  review  which 
now,  on  revising  this  Avork  for  its  fourth  edition,  we  can 
make  with  all  the  advantage  of  those  who  have  had  the 
evidence  investigated  by  antagonistic  expositors ;  its  links 
tested ;  and  every  possible  flaw  sought  out. 

Can  we,  then,  wall  have  erred  in  our  explanation  of  the 
primary  part  of  the  Apocalyptic  Prophecy,  i.  e.,  its  six  first 
Seals  ?  —  Let  it  be  remembered,  to  begin,  how,  as  we  first 
took  the  book  in  hand,  the  evidence  of  its  apostolic,  and 
so  divine  authorship,  alike  internal  and  external,  imprest 
itself  on  our  minds  as  clear  and  irrefragable  :  and  conse- 
quently the  inference  that  it  ought  to  be  judged  of  and 
explained  as  a  divine  book,  and  after  the  analogy  of  other 
similarly  divine  and  similarly  constructed  prophecies. 
Which  being  the  case,  and  the  analogy  of  Daniel's  sym- 

*  See  Vol.  i.,  pp.  443—445.  t  See  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  132—142. 


IN    THE    PROPIIETrC    CALENDAR,  91 

bolic  and  orderly  constructed  prophecies  (by  far  the  nearest 
parallels  in  Scripture)  enforcing  an  explanation  with  refer- 
ence to  the  future  fortunes  of  the  great  worldly  empires  con- 
nected with  God's  Church,  commencing  from  the  date  of 
St.  John's  receiving  the  prophetic  revelation, — i.  e.  we 
saw  clearly,  from  near  the  end  of  Domitian's  reign,  A.  D. 
95  or  90, — could  we  well  be  wrong  in  supposing  pre- 
sumptively that  the  fortunes  and  grand  munitions  of  the 
Roman  empire,  then  standing  in  its  glory  (the  fourth  of 
Daniel's  four  great  prophetic  empires),  were  likely  to  be 
the  subjects  of  the  primary  Apocalyptic  figurations"/  I  say 
the  mutations  thenceforward  conifncncinjr/,  accordantly  with 
the  Danielic  precedent :  especially  as  the  revealing  angel's 
own  words,  '"  I  will  now  show  thee  wliat  is  to  happen  after 
these  things "  (the  things  then  present),  taken  in  their 
most  natural  sense,  seemed  expressly  to  indicate  such  a 
speedily  following  commencement.  And,  if  such  were  the 
reasonable  presumption  a  priori,  was  the  evidence  slight, 
or  insufficient,  on  which  wc  concluded  that  the  figurations 
of  the  first  six  Apocalyptic  Seals  did  answer  very  exactly 
to  tiie  Roman  empire's  chief  eras  of  change  and  progress 
from  Domitian  to  Constantine? 

Let  me  stop  here  and  particularize  a  little ;  as  these  Seals 
were  the  introduction  and  key  to  the  whole  Commentary. 

In  regard,  then,  of  the  four  first  Seals,  it  will  not  have 
been  forgotten  how  the  horse  (the  most  prominent  emblem 
in  each  of  them)  appeared  to  be  a  most  fit  symbol  of  the 
martial  Roman  empire  ;  especially  as,  besides  being  the 
war-horse,  it  was  an  animal  sacred  to  the  Romans'  reputed 
father,  Mars :  and  how  its  successive  colors  of  white,  red, 
black,  and  livid  pale,  considered  conjunctively  with  the 
associated  riders  of  the  respective  horses,  and  with  the  ex- 
planatory remarks  in  ejich  case  accompanying,  seemed  to 
be  just  the  fittest  hues  also  to  depict  the  chief  subsequent 
successive  piiases  of  the  empire,  such  as  they  might  well 
strike  a  piiilosophic  eye,  marking  cause  as  well  as  effect,  as 
new  principles  appeared  developed  in  it,  for  good  or  for 
evil.  Thus,'  1st,  came  the  white  prosperous  era  under 
the  bow-bearin<j  Cretic  dynjisty  of  Nerva  Trajan  and  the 
Antonines ;  with  triumphs  the  most  signal  marking  its 
commencement,  and  triumphs  iiard-bought,  but  as  signal, 


92  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

marking  its  close  (alike  the  "went  forth  conquering," 
and  the  added  "to  conquer")  :  an  era  begun  on  Domitian'a 
death,  -within  a  year  from  the  time  of  St.  John's  seeing  the 
visions  in  Patmos ;  and  continued  for  some  eighty  years 
and  more,  till  a  little  after  the  succession  of  the  second 
Antonine's  son,  Commodus :  —  then,  2ndly,  an  era  red  with 
the  blood  of  civil  strife,  under  a  sword-hear  big  succession 
of  military  usurpers  ;  begun  with  the  murder  of  Commodus, 
or  a  little  before  it,  and  continued  far  onward,  with  other 
superadded  principles  of  evil  soon  commingling,  the  subjects 
of  the  two  next  Seals  :  —  3dly,  the  black  phase  of  impover- 
ishment by  fiscal  oppression^  under  the  balance-hearing 
administrators  of  the  civil  government,  the  necessary  result 
of  prolonged  military  usurpation  and  civil  wars :  begun  from 
the  marked  epoch  of  Caracalla's  Edict :  and  continued  on- 
wards, with  ever-increased  internal  wasting,  together  with 
the  evil  that  preceded  and  caused  it :  —  4thly,  the  era  of 
tnoriality  under  Gallienus,  when  all  the  four  agencies  of 
destruction  particularized  in  the  Apocalypse,  loar^  famine, 
jiestilence,  and  wild  beasts,  in  meet  sequel  to  the  evils  of 
the  two  preceding  Seals,  appeared  let  loose  upon  the  em- 
pire, not  to  be  withdrawn  till  the  completed  restoration 
by  Diocletian :  an  era  compared  by  Niebuhr  with  that  of 
the  black  death  in  the  European  middle  age ;  and  when, 
as  Gibbon  says,  "  ^Ae  riiined  empire  seemed  to  approach 
the  last  and  fatal  inomoii  of  its  dissolution.''^  It  will  be 
remembered,  as  suggested  by  this  citation  and  reference, 
that  the  eras  were  marked  out,  and  their  picturings  ready 
drawn  to  our  hands,  in  such  singular  agreement  with  the 
successive  Apocalyptic  figurations,  by  the  best  and  most 
philosophic  historians  of  the  Roman  empire,  Gibbon,  Mon- 
tesquieu, Sismondi,  Niebuhr.  Nor  will  my  readers  forget 
how  many  curious  antiquarian  as  well  as  historical  points 
came  into  question,  in  the  Roman  explanation  of  the 
symbols  of  these  four  Seals ;  —  the  horse,  crown,  dia- 
dem, how,  siDord,  balance,  notices  of  corn,  wine  and  oil 
from  the  throne,  and  various  colors  of  the  horse,  all  in  a 
fixed  chronological  succession  and  order.  Altogether  above 
twenty  points  for  testing  :  and  not  one,  on  testing  it,  has 
failed.     Could  this  be  mere  chance  ? 

And  this  strikes  me  much  in  my  present  review  of  the 


IN  THE  PROniETIC  CALENDAR.  93 

evidence,  after  all  its  siftings,  that  I  only  did  not  do  justice 
to  my  subject  originally ;  and  that  the  evidence  for  tlie  four 
Seals,  as  here  expounded,  was  stronger  and  more  complete 
than  I  had  primarily  represented  it.  In  the  1st  Seal  the 
measure  of  the  second  Antonincs  success  was  at  first  not 
adequately  stated :  resulting  as  his  wars  did  in  the  resto- 
ration of  the  empire  to  the  full  measure  of  its  eastward 
limits,  as  extended  by  Trajan ;  but  which  Hadrian,  from 
motives  of  policy,  had  voluntarily  for  a  while  contracted. 
In  the  2nd  Seal  the  sword-bearing  rider  had  been  explained 
too  exclusively  of  the  Praitorian  Prefects  :  whereas  as  much 
the  prophetic  symbol,  as  the  facts  of  history,  required  a 
reference  to  the  military  body,  and  its  commanders  gene- 
rally, as  the  cause  of  the  evils  figured  under  that  Seal.  In 
the  3d  it  was  fairly  argued  by  an  opponent  that  the  larger 
chocnix  first  taken  by  me  Avas  not  the  common  chanix, 
and  therefore  objectionable.  But,  on  further  inquiry,  it 
appeared  that  the  idea  which  drove  me  to  the  larger  choc- 
nix, of  the  Apocalyptic  price  of  wheat  not  suiting  the  era 
of  Alexander  Severus,  to  which  my  theory  referred  it,  if 
construed  of  the  smaller  and  more  common  chocnix,  was 
a  mere  mistake  on  my  own  part :  the  value  of  the  denarius 
having  at  that  era  been  so  reduced  by  deterioration  of 
the  silver,  that  the  price  specified  did  then  suit  the  lesser 
and  common  chocnix,  not  the  uncommon  and  larger.*  Once 
more,  in  the  4th  Seal  there  was  the  difficulty  arising  out 
of  the  limitation  of  the  evils  of  war,  famine,  pestilence,  and 
wild  beasts,  to  the  fourth  part  of  the  earth,  according  to 
the  received  reading  of  the  Greek  text;  whereas  in  the 
historic  era  supposed  to  correspond  with  the  Seal  those 
evils  were  extended  over  the  whole  Roman  earth  or  empire. 
But,  while  the  fact  of  the  \chole  horse  appearing  under  the 
livid  hue  of  dissolution,  not  its  fourth  part  only,  seemed 
on  the  very  face  of  the  symbol  inconsistent  with  any  such 
limitation  as  the  explanatory  words  in  question  attached  to 
it,  the  verified  reading  in  Jerome's  Vulgate  of  ^'■fonrimrts^^ 
instead  of  ^'-  fourth  part''  (a  reading  differing  from  the  re- 

*  On  the  several  points  here  mentioned,  I  must  beg  the  reader  to  refer 
to  my  controversial  papers  in  the  Appendix,  as  well  as  to  the  body  of  the 
Work,  in  my  1st  volume. 


94  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

ceived  by  but  one  letter,  and  supported  bj  yet  another 
version),  was  found,  not  only  to  rectify  the  internal  in- 
consistency, but  to  offer  a  new  and  striking  similarity 
between  the  prophecy  and  the  historic  era  to  which  I  referred 
it :  seeing  that  in  the  Senate's  very  address  to  Claudius, 
the  first  of  the  restoring  emperors  after  Gallienus,  the  em- 
pire was  spoken  of  as  then  separated  by  military  usurpers 
into  three  grand  divisions  of  the  West,  East  and  North, 
besides  the  central  division  of  Itali/  and  Africa:  *  a  memo- 
rable division  into  four  that  was  perpetuated  soon  after, 
authoritatively  and  constitutionally,  by  Diocletian. 

So  as  to  the  four  first  Seals.  And  then,  as  the  next  or 
5th  Seal  figured  a  most  striking  scene  of  Christian  martyrs, 
under  persecution,  as  was  stated,  of  the  then  existing  powers 
of  the  (Roman)  world,  so  the  next  page  of  history  exhib- 
ited the  martyr-scenes  of  the  Diocletianic  persecution,  an 
era  called  emphatically  the  Era  of  Martyrs.  And,  as 
the  Qth  Seal,  in  its  primary  figuration,  exhibited  in  differ- 
ent but  equally  striking  symbols  the  passing  away  of  the 
whole  previously  established  political  heaven,  and  its  chief 
luminaries  or  powers,  not  without  the  accompaniment  of 
rout  and  terror  on  their  part  before  the  anger  of  the  Lamb, 
the  crucified  One, —  so  the  next  page  of  history  recorded 
the  extraordinary  fact  of  the  dissolution,  very  soon  after,  of 
the  whole  political  system  of  Roman  Paganism,  not  without 
defeat  after  defeat  of  the  imperial  champions  of  Paganism, 
before  the  standard  of  the  cross  ;  a  revolution  begun  after 
Diocletian's  abdication  under  Constantino,  and  completed, 
some  seventy  years  after,  under  Theodosius.  To  the  objec- 
tion of  the  Seal's  speaking  of  the  great  day  of  Christ's  wrath 
having  come,  as  if  fixing  the  scene  to  a  prefiguration  of  the 
final  j udgment-day,  a  sufficient  answer  seemed  given  in  the 
examples  of  other  and  earlier  prophecies,  descriptive  notori- 
ously of  temporal  revolutions,  yet  couched  in  similar  phrase 
and  figure :  while  to  any  counter-scheme,  explaining  it  of 
the  judgment-day,  there  stood  opposed  the  impossibility 
of  any  literal  construction  of  the  Seal's  symbols,  so  as  of  the 
judgment-day's  physical  convulsions,  the  absence  from 
them  of  both  conflagration  and  resurrection,  and  the  na- 

*  Pollio's  Claudius,  ch.  iv.  —  See  my  Vol.  i.,  pp.  189,  190. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.  95 

ture,  too,  of  the  next  following  figuration  in  the  self-same 
6th  Seal :  one  which,  though  expressly  defined  as  succeed- 
ing to  the  figui-ation  previous,  did  yet  exhibit  the  sky  and 
the  earth  and  earth's  inhabitants  as  all  again  visible ;  and 
tempests  of  judgments  as  preparing  against  them.  Nor, 
again,  can  I  help  viewing  it  as  a  most  strong  and  re- 
markable confirmation  to  my  theory  of  the  Seals,  that 
which  I  may  venture  to  say  no  other  explanation  has 
solved, —  I  mean  the  fact  of  those  tempests  appearing  in 
vision  prepared  and  suspended,  connectedly  and  synchroni- 
cally  with  figurations  not  only  of  the  sealing  of  the  elect 
cues  out  of  the  tribes  of  Israel,  but  of  the  palm-bearers  to 
entering  on  the  beatific  vision,  though  without  any  change 
to  blessedness  correspondently  on  the  earth, — I  say  that  this 
otherwise  inexplicable  particular  should  have  proved  on 
our  theory  to  have  the  most  simple  and  most  complete  solu- 
tion in  the  doctrinal  revelation  made  to  Augustine  (John's 
genuine  descendant  in  the  true  Apostolic  succession),  re- 
specting both  the  election  of  grace  out  of  the  professing 
Church  or  Israel,*  and  their  final  perseverance  through  grace, 
even  until  brought  to  the  beatific  vision  :  —  a  doctrinal  rev- 
elation made  to  him  at  the  very  epoch  of  Theodosius'  death, 
just  before  the  bursting  of  the  temjjcsts  of  Gothic  desola- 
tion on  the  Roman  cm[)ire ;  and  of  which  the  religious  in- 
fluence was  such,  for  ages  afterwards,  that  the  highest  kind 
of  philosophy  of  history  would  have  been  positively  wanting, 
had  this  revelation  not  been  then  some  way  depicted.  Of 
w  hich  moral  ))hilnso])hy  of  the  Apocalypse,  however,  I  sliall 
here  say  nothing,  as  it  will  come  up  for  consideration  in  a 
later  part  of  this  chapter.  Only,  while  glancing  retrospect- 
ively at  the  historic  evidence  of  our  exposition  of  the  past, 
let  this  concomitant  moral  evidence  never  be  forgotten. 

Having  dwelt  tlius  at  large  on  the  evidence  of  the  six 
first  Seals,  as  being  the  introduction  and  key  to  the  whole 
Apocalyptic  prophecy,  it  is  not  my  purpose,  nor  does  there 
seem  to  me  need,  to  dwell  with  at  all  the  same  particularity 
on  that  of  my  subsequent  expositions  of  the  Apocalyptic 
Book.     If  we  be  deemed  to  have  advanced  thus  far  in  our 


*  Israel  being  so  construed  according  to  the  analogy  of  the  Apocalyptic 
eymbols. 


96  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

exposition  satisfactorily,  vre  shall  scarcely  be  judged  by  any 
one  to  have  erred  in  explaining  the  six  first  of  that  Trum- 
pet-septenary of  visions  which  evolves  the  7th  Seal,  as  ful- 
filled in  the  successive  irruptions  and  woes  of  the  Goths, 
Saracens,  and  Turks.  In  respect,  however,  o^  the  fojtr  first 
Gothic  Trumpets,  let  it  not  be  forgotten  how  notable  was 
the  ti'ipartite  division  of  the  empire,  that  we  thought  alluded 
to  in  the  there  figured  third  of  the  earth,  sea,  rivers  and 
Jieavenly  luminaries, —  the4Yestern  empire  one  third:  and 
how,  as  the  last  of  the  four  exhibited  the  eclipse  of  the  gov- 
erning lights  over  one  third  of  the  Roman  world,  so  the 
result  of  the  Gothic  and  Vandal  desolations,  by  land  and  sea, 
was  the  extinction  of  the  Western  Empire.  Then,  as  regards 
the  scorpion-locusts  of  the  5th  Trumpet,  interpreted  of  the 
Sarac.ejis,  we  may  remember  how  striking  seemed  the  evi- 
dence in  proof  of  our  correctness,  alike  in  the  Arabian 
character  of  all  the  various  animal  symbols,  and  figured 
origination  of  those  symbols  out  of  the  smoke  of  the  bot- 
tomless pit,  as  if  with  the  accompaniment  of  some  fiilse  and 
cruel  religion,  emanating  from  the  pit  of  hell,  just  such  as 
Mahometanism :  —  also,  in  regard  of  the  Qih  Trumpet- 
plague  of  lion-like  horses  from  the  Euphrates,  how  we  saw 
proof  of  its  fulfilment  in  the  Turks,  alike  from  its  apparently 
implied  connection  with  the  plague  of  the  previous  Trum- 
pet, from  the  symbols  of  both  fire,  smoke  and  sulphur  from 
the  horses'  mouths  and  heads,  with  injuring  power  attach- 
ing to  their  tails ;  also  from  their  declared  destiny,  after  a 
certain  singularly  defined  period,  of  slaying  the  third  of  men, 
or  Eastern  division  of  Roman  Christendom.  After  which, 
and  that  plain,  literal  statement  as  to  the  continued  persist- 
ence in  idolatries,  fornications,  thefts,  murders,  sorceries,  of 
those  who  had  not  been  politically  slain  by  these  plagues, 
namely,  the  countries,  as  it  seemed,  of  Western  Christen- 
dom,—  a  characteristic  of  them  to  the  truth  of  which  the 
Turkish  Sultan's  own  edict,  after  the  capture  of  Constanti- 
nople, lent,  we  saw,  its  most  striking  testimony, —  there  came 
that  graphic  prefiguration  of  the  Reformation,  with  a  syn- 
chronic sketch  of  the  two  sackcloth-robed  witnesses'  history, 
down  to  their  death  and  resurrection,  given  retrospectively  l)y 
the  Angel  of  the  Reformation,  which  must  be  fresh  in  the 
minds  of  my  readers  :  and  of  which  the  evidence,  as  I  myself 


IN  THE  PROPUETIC  CALENDAR.  97 

look  back  at  it,  docs  appear  to  me  to  be  the  most  complete  and 
satisfactory.  Truly  may  I  say,  after  most  carefully  re- 
viewing it,  that  I  do  not  think  any  history  of  the  Reforma- 
tion can  be  shown,  which  traces  more  exactly  according  to 
truth  the  main  steps  and  epochs,  external  and  internal,  in 
the  history  of  that  great  revolution ;  from  its  commence- 
ment in  Luther's  first  discovery  of  Christ  as  the  justification 
and  righteousness  of  his  people,  to  its  establishment,  Avitli 
its  now  purified  churches  (the  '^i^-Jc^o?  of  earthly  princes,  as 
well  as  voice  from  God  authorizing  them),  in  many  coun- 
tries of  Christendom  :  more  especially  in  the  tenth  kingdom 
of  Papal  Christendom,  thenceforward  Protestant  England : 
and  the  "  seven  chiliads,"  thenceforward  the  Dutch  Prot- 
estant United  Provinces.  All  this  under  the  second  half 
of  the  Gth  Trumpet,  or  Turkish  woe  :  just  according  to  the 
Apocalyptic  figuration.  And  then  next  according  to  pro- 
phecy, and  next  according  to  the  history,  the  second,  or 
Turkish  vroe,  avc  saw,  past  away :  and,  as  in  fulfilment  of 
the  7th  Trumpet's  sounding,  and  its  earthquake,  there 
occun-ed  that  grand  event  of  modern  times,  the  French 
Revolution. 

So  as  to  the  pi'hnai'ij  scries  of  visions,  depicted,  I  con- 
ceive, on  the  inner  side  of  the  Apocalyptic  scroll.  And  as 
an  intended  parallelism  with  them  was  evident  (even  as  if 
depicted  correspondently  on  the  scroll's  outside)  of  the  snp- 
])leniental  and  retrogressive  scries  in  Apoc.  xii.,  xiii.,  con- 
cerning the  sack  cloth-robed  Witnesses'  slayer,  the  Beast 
FROM  THE  Abys.<,  and  his  reign  'for  the  same  1260  days' 
period  as  their  prophesying  in  sackloth, —  so  too  we  saw 
the  parallelism  of  the  events  of  this  new  series  with  those 
of  the  former,  Avhcn  explained,  on  the  year-day  system,  of 
the  Popes  and  Popedom,  down  to  the  primary  end  of  those 
12G0  days,  at  the  same  great  epoch  of  the  French  Revolu- 
tion. At  the  same  time  that  in  the  particular  symbolizations 
contained  in  this  subsidiary  part  of  the  Prophecy,  namely, 
those  of  the  ten-horned  Beast  itself,  its  chief  minister  the 
tiro-horned  Beast,  and  the  Image  of  the  Beast, —  ex- 
plained respectively  of  the  Papal  Empire,  Papal  Priest- 
hood, aiKl  Papal  Councils,  together  with  the  symbolized 
■tninie  and  number  of  the  Beast,  construed  accordantly 
with  Ireuscus'  early  teaching  as  Lateinos,  there  were  found 
9 


98  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

tens  and  Uoenties  of  particulars  wherein  to  compare  the 
symbols  and  the  supposed  things  symbolized ;  and,  I  think, 
a  fitting  proved  between  them,  one  after  another,  une- 
quivocally. 

Thus  it  was  by  a  continuous  double  chain  of  evidence, 
from  St.  John's  time  downward,  each  with  multitudinous 
links,  that  we  were  brought  to  identify  the  epoch  of  the 
seventh  Trumpet's  sounding  with  that  of  the  great  French 
Revolution  in  1700.  And  still  the  same  continued  double 
line  of  proof  led  us  onAvard,  yet  further,  to  fix  our  present 
position  as  but  just  a  little  before  the  consummation:  —  it 
being  in  the  one  series,  after  the  outpouring  of  the  previous 
Vials  in  the  wars  of  the  French  Revolution,  near  upon  the 
close  of  the  sixth  Vial,  with  its  drying  up  of  the  Turkman 
Euphrateau  flood,  and  the  going  forth  coincidently  of  three 
spirits  of  delusion  over  the  earth,  such  as  are  even  now  re- 
cognizable, to  gather  men  to  the  battle  of  the  great  God ; 
or  perhaps  indeed  at  the  opening  of  the  seventh  Vial ;  — in 
the  oilier  series  under  the  second  or  third  of  the  three  flying 
Angels,  with  their  voices  of  gospel-preaching  and  anti- 
papal  warning,  such  as  the  world  is  even  now  hearing  (the 
temple  or  gospel-church  being  meanwhile  all  opened  to  the 
world,  so  as  never  before),  just  before  the  last  judgments  of 
the  harvest  and  the  vintage.  — Which  being  so,  and  when 
we  find  the  long  double  line  of  such  various  evidence  thus 
combining  to  fix  our  position  at  the  advanced  point  where 
I  have  placed  it, —  and,  on  considering  the  evidence  retro- 
spectively, not  as  advocates  or  partisans,  but  as  simple 
searchers  for  truth  on  the  great  matter  in  question,  can  dis- 
cern no  flaw  or  chasm  therein,  to  vitiate  or  render  it  imper- 
fect,—  it  seems  to  me  reason's  dictate  that  we  should  bow  to 
its  strength  and  consistency,  and  acknowledge  that  such  our 
advanced  position  in  the  prophetic  calendar  seems  indeed, 
in  all  probability,  to  be  the  very  fact. 

With  regard  to  the  mistaken  views  as  to  the  nearness  of 
the  consummation  entertained  in  other  times,  and  by  other 
expositors  of  prophecy,  the  several  causes  of  mistake  are 
for  the  most  part  obvious :  and  also  that  they  are  such  as 
cannot,  or  do  not,  affect  the  grounds  of  our  present  con- 
clusion.    The  patristic  expositors^  living  early  as  they  did 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.  99 

in  the  Christiiin  era,  had  no  long  continuous  chain  of  his- 
toric events  before  them ;  such  as  was  essentially  needed, 
in  order  to  the  right  interpretation  of  the  Apocalypse  as 
a  continuous  prophecy.  If  they  interpreted  it  at  all,  they 
could  only  generalize,  agreeably  with  their  general  and 
vague  anticipations  of  the  future :  chietly  with  reference 
to  the  predicted  Antichrist ;  who,  they  knew,  was  to  come 
on  the  dissolution  of  the  Roman  Empire,  but  whose  dura- 
tion (on  their  dtnj-daij  system)  they  mislnkingly  limited 
to  1200  days.*  So  tliat  tliey  altogetlier  lacked  the  Apoca- 
lyptic land-marks,  which  would  have  shown  them  how  nmch 
yet  remained  of  the  voyage  before  the  harbor  could  l)e 
gained ;  and  made  an  error  of  reckoning,  which  we  can  be 
in  no  danger  of  repeating.  —  The  same  causes  would  have 
operated  in  a  measure  to  prevent  a  perception  of  the  truth, 
through  the  earlier  half  of  the  dnrlc  middle  nges,  had  there 
been  then  enough  of  intellectual  energy  and  research 
(which  there  was  not)  really  to  investigate  Scripture  projih- 
ecy :  besides  Avhich,  Augustine's  error  respecting  the  INIil- 
lennium, —  an  error  detailed  in  my  3d  preceding  Ciiap- 
ter.f  and  which  descended  to  them  from  him  with  almost 
the  authority  of  inspiration, —  engendered  that  erroneous 
expectation  of  the  immediate  imminence  of  the  judgment- 
day  at  /he  close  of  tlie  tenth  ce/itKri/.  to  which  I  have  more 
than  once  made  allusion.  J  After  the  glorious  Rrfoj-mation, 
though  alike  by  the  application  of  the  Apocalyptic  emblems 
of  the  Beast  and  Babylon  to  the  Papacy  and  Papal  Rome, 
by  the  adoption  of  the  year-day  system,  and  by  discove- 
ries in  clearer  and  clearer  light  of  the  part  that  the  Gothic, 
Saracenic  and  Turkish  woes  had  in  the  prophecy,  a  vast 
advance  was  made  in  prophetic  intelligence,  and  elements 
brought  into  existence  for  sounder  views  as  to  the  future. — 
yet  still  from  the  times  of  Luther,  the  Madgeburgh  Centu- 
riators  and  Foxo.  down  to  tiiose  successively  of  Brightman 
and  Mode,  Vitringa  and  Daubuz,  and  Sir  Isaac  and  Bishop 
Newton,  many  chasms  remained  unsupplied,  and  important 
dates  uncertified,  in  Apocalyptic  interpretation :  more  es- 
pecially because,  as  Sir  I.  Newton  observed  with  character- 

*  See  Vol.  iii.,  p.  253.       t  l^igcs  130,  130  supra.        t  Vol.  i.,  p.  443. 


100  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

istic  sagacity,*  there  remained  unfulfilled  in  history  the  last 
predicted  revolution,  answering  to  the  seventh  Trumpet; 
an  event  essential  to  the  confirmation  of  some  most  import- 
ant points  of  interpretation,  and  determination  of  others. 
So  that  -svhat  wonder  if  many  mistaken  anticipations  were 
still  formed  and  published,  antedating  the  time  of  the  end  ? 
Nor,  even  after  that  Trumpet  had  had  (as  it  is  conceived) 
its  marked  fulfilment  in  the  Prench  RevoliUion.  were  those 
causes  of  error  by  any  means  all  removed.  It  necessarily 
took  some  time  ere  the  mind  of  the  investigator  could 
calmly  survey  and  judge  of  that  great  event.  There  was 
in  England  (the  only  country  in  which  religious  truth  and 
inquiry  then  had  favor),  both  at  the  outburst  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  for  many  years  after  it,  a  lament- 
able deficiency  of  learning  and  research ;  such  as  was 
needed  to  draw  out  the  evidence,  and  argue  accurately  from 
it  on  the  probabilities  of  the  future.  On  many  important 
points  in  the  Apocalyptic  prophecy  there  still  rested  great 
obscurity:  especially,  I  may  say,  on  the  Seals^  the  dealing 
Visio}i,  the  ivhole  Vision  of  the  rainbow-circled  Angel  of 
the  tenth  chapter,  the  death  and  resurrection  of  the  Wit- 
nesses, the  seventlt  and  eighth  Heads  of  the  Beast,  and  the 
very  form  and  stmictnre  of  the  'prophecy  itself.  Hence, 
by  necessary  consequence,  even  among  them  that  held  to 
the  Protestant  and  year-day  principle  of  explanation,  there 
was  such  variety  and  contrarieties  of  opinion  respecting 
them,  that  much,  very  much,  remained  evidently  wanting, 
ere  a  complete  and  satisfactory  explanation  of  that  which 
related  to  the  past  could  be  given :  and  consequently  ere  we 
could  be  prepared  to  form  a  fit  judgment  from  it,  with  any 
great  confidence,  as  to  our  own  actual  place  in  the  proph- 
ecy, and  the  nearness  of  the  great  future  consummation. 
It  is  the  author's  hope  and  belief  that,  in  some  measure, 
this  has  now  been  done :  and,  as  before  said,  a  contin- 
uous historical  exposition  given  of  the  Apocalypse,  on 
evidence  irrefragable,  and  without  a  chasm  or  lacuna  of 
importance  unexplained,  up  to  the  present  time.     Whether 

*  "  The  time  is  not  yet  come  for  understanding  these  prophecies  per- 
fectly, because  the  main  revolution  predicted  in  them  is  not  yet  come  to 
p;vss."  —  I'rcf,  p.  IG. 


IN    THE    PROniETIC    CALEXDAR.  101 


this  be  so,  or  not,  the  rcadei*  will  judge  for  himself.  But, 
it'  it  be,  then  it  is  evident  that  the  most  influential  cause  of 
former  mistakes  rci^pecting  the  coming  future  must  be  con- 
si<lered  as  now  done  away  with :  and  a  vant<ige-ground 
established  for  judging  correctly  respecting  it,  such  as  did 
not  exist  before. 

In  the  arrangement  of  the  great  calendar  of  prophecy, 
and  the  adjustment  of  our  own  position  on  it,  whether 
nearer  to  the  final  end  or  less  near,  it  is  evident  that  the 
clirounlogical  j)j-c'(/ictions  (I  mean  those  which  involve 
chronological  periods)  must  needs  demand  our  most  partic- 
ular attention.  First  and  foremost  in  importance  is  the 
memorable  prophecy  of  the  12G0  years  of  the  Beast,  or 
Antichrist,  six  times  repeated  in  the  Apocalyptic  vision,  and 
three  in  Daniel.  This  measures  the  Beasts  reign,  in  rec- 
ognized supremacy  over  the  lloman  Empire,  during  its  last 
divided  and  apostatized  state ;  or  rather  the  reign  of  the 
Be;vst's  last  Head,  Antichrist.  And  we  have  seen  that, 
with  the  light  of  that  grand  illustrative  event  of  our  latter 
day,  /he  French  Revolution,  the  jrrhnary  commencement 
and  end  of  the  period  may  be  deemed  to  have  been  fixed, 
on  strong  probable  evidence,  to  about  the  years  A.  D.  530 
and  1790  respectively,  at  just  12G0  years'  interval:  the 
one  the  epoch  of  Justinian's  Decree  and  Code,  which  was  a 
virtual  imperial  recognition  of  the  Pope's  supremacy  in  his 
then  assumed  character  of  Christ's  Vicar,  or  Antichrist ;  * 
the  other  that  of  the  French  revolutionary  outbreak,  and 
legal  code,  Avhich  gave  to  the  Pope's  antichristian  supremacy 
and  power  a  deadly  blow  throughout  Western  Christen- 
dom.! ^'^  ^^so  saw  that  in  one  of  his  propliecies  Daniel 
appended  to  what  seemed  to  be  the  same  period  of  the  1 2G0 
years  yet  a  further  addition  of  30  and  45,  or  conjointly 
of  75  years,  as  if  still  to  intervene  before  the  times  of 
blessedness:!  so  fixing  the  year  18G5,  or  thereabouts,  as 

*  See  Vol.  iii.,  pp.  "274 — 276,  Trith  the  references. 

+  Sec  Vol.  iii.,  o(')5 — 377. 

X  Sec  p.  lOG  supra.  —  I  s:iy  seemed,  because  of  the  peculiar  ambiguities 
ami  difficulties  of  that  last  ]irophecy.  Alike,  however,  a  priori  proba- 
bilities, and  the  analogy  of  the  70  years'  predicted  Babylonish  captivity 
(see  Vol.  iii.,  274),  favor  tiie  idea  of  there  being  some  such  definitely 
extcnde<l  lime  of  the  end. 

9* 


102  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

the  probable  epoch  of  the  consummation.  And  I  think 
it  may  be  here  Avell  worth  the  reader's  while  to  stop  and 
mark  with  me  the  consistency  of  this  view  of  the  commenc- 
ing date  of  Daniel's  75  years  of  the  time  of  the  cnd^  with 
other  prophetic  chronological  periods,  bearing  on  the  time 
of  consummation;  —  three  more  especially.  1st,  on  our  pro- 
gressing mundane  chronology  reaching  the  thirtieth  year 
beyond,  A.  D.  1790,  it  meets  the  end  of  the  long  line  of 
2300  years  in  another  of  Daniel's  visions,  calculated  from 
B.  C.  480,  as  the  epoch  of  the  emblematic  Persian  ram's 
highest  acme  of  conquering  power :  the  which  was  to  mark 
apparently  the  destined  commencement  of  the  fall  of  the 
Turkman  empire :  —  a  view  of  that  prophecy  realized  by 
fact,  let  it  be  remembered,  on  the  coming  and  passing  of  the 
year  1820.*  2ndly,  on  its  advancing  yet  forty-five  years 
further,  i.  e.,  at  the  epoch  of  about  A.  D.  1865,  it  meets  the 
secondary  and  chief  terminatinr/  epoch  of  the  1260  years^ 
period  of  Antichrist's  power ;  calculated  from  that  which 
may  be  deemed  a  secondary  chief  commencement  of  them  in 
the  Popedom  favoring  Decree  of  Phocas.f  3.  At  that 
self-same  epoch  of  1865,  or  thereabouts,  it  falls  in  with  the 
probable  termination  of  6000  years  from  the  Creation, 
according  to  the  highest  literary  authority  on  such  a  mat- 
ter :  in  other  words,  synchronizes  at  that  chronological 
point  with  the  opening  epoch  of  the  lOorkVs  seventh  inille- 
nary ;  and  therefore,  according  to  the  primitive  Church's 
expectation,  not  perhaps  without  apostolic  sanction  for  it, 
with  that  of  the  commencement  of  the  sabbatism  of  rest 
promised  to  the  saints  of  God. 

On  which  last  point,  as  one  never  yet  duly  discussed  in 
this  work,  I  must  here  beg  for  a  while  to  request  the  read- 
er's attention. 

The  fact  of  the  Jewish  pre-Christian  Church  having  long 
and  fixedly  entertained  the  opinion  that  Messiah's  kingdom 
of  blessedness  would  occupy  the  seventh  millennium  of  the 
world,  agreeably  with  the  type  of  the  seventh  day's  sabba- 
tism of  rest  after  the  six  days  of  creation,  is  well  known.  J 

*  See  Vol  iii.,  pp.  413— 41G.  t  See  Vol.  iii.,  pp.  27G— 278. 

■\  So  the  Rabbi  Eliezer,  cap.  xviii.,  p.  41  :  —  "  The  blessed  Lord  created 
seven  worlds  (i.  e.  aivnas,  ar/es);  but  one  of  them  is  all  sabbath,  and  rest 
in  life  eternal."  "Where,"  observes  Dr.  Whitby  on  Heb.  4:  9,  "he 
refers  to  their  (the  .Tews')  common  opinion  that  the  world  should  continue 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         103 


And,  as  I  have  just  hinted  in  my  preceding  chapter,*  the 
apostle  St.  Pauls  use  of  the  word  (TuSSuTKram,  sabbatism, 
to  designate  the  saints'  expected  glorious  time  of  rcsi  -with 
Christ,  might  almost  be  construed  as  his  approbatory  recog- 
nition of  it :  especially  considering  that  it  was  Hebrew 
Christians  ■\vlioni  he  was  then  addressing ;  and  that  by 
them  the  word  thus  chosen  could  not  but  be  almost  neces- 
sarily associated,  from  long  national  usage,  Avith  some  chro- 
nological septenary.!  In  fact,  among  the  Christian  fathers 
that  succeeded  on  the  apostolic  age  this  view  of  the  mat- 


GOno  years,  and  then  a  perpetual  sabbath  bc:;in,  typified  by  God's  resting 
tlic  seventh  day  and  blessing  it."  (For  perpetual,  Whitby  should  have 
perhaps  said  a  milleniiiul  sabbath;  it  being  uiu)iiii,-  in  the  sense  in  which 
the  ttiuntc,  or  ti(;cs,  before  mentioned,  were  each  millcitnial.  So  in  the 
Midras  Till.,  p.  4,  the  same  Rabbi  Eliezer  says,  "The  days  of  Messiah 
are  1000  years."*)  Similarly  the  BcreschWi  Rabba,  quoted  also  by  Whit- 
by :  "  If  we  expound  the  seventh  day  of  the  seventh  thousand  of  years, 
which  is  the  world  to  come,  the  exposition  is,  'ifc  blessed  it,'  because  that 
in  the  seventh  thousand  all  souls  shall  be  bound  in  the  bundle  of  life. .  . . 
So  our  Rabbins  of  blessed  memory  have  said,  in  their  Commentaries  on 
'God  blessed  the  seventh,  day,'  that  the  Holy  Ghost  blessed  the  ivorld  to 
come,  which  begiuncth  in  the  seventh  thousand  of  years.  Again,  Philo 
is  copious  on  the  same  subject;  stating  that  the  sabbaths  of  the  law  were 
allcyories,  or  fiiju rat ive  expressions.''  With  which  view  we  may  compare 
St.  Paul's  declai-ation  in  Col.  2  ;  16, 17  :  "In  respect  of  the  sabbath-days, 
wliich  are  a  shadow  of  thimjs  to  come."     ay.ia  Ton-  i(t/.;.oiTuir. 

The  general  opinion  of  the  Jews  was,  that  the  world  was  to  be  2000 
years  without  the  law,  2000  under  the  law,  and  2000  under  the  Messiah. 
This  is  still  called  by  the  Jews  "a  tradition  of  the  house  of  Elias,"  an 
eminent  Rabbi  that  lived  before  the  birth  of  Christ:  —  who  also  taught 
that  in  the  seventh  millenary  the  earth  would  be  renewed,  and  the 
righteous  dead  raised,  no  more  again  to  be  turned  to  dust;  and  that  the 
just  tlicn  alive  should  mount  up  with  wings  as  eagles;  so  that  in  that 
day  they  would  not  need  to  fear,  though  the  mountains  (Psalm  40  :  2) 
should  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  sea.  —  Mede,  Book  iv. 

*  Page  1S2  supra. 

t  So  Wliitby  says  on  Heb.  4  :  9,  that  "the  apostle  by  changing  the 
word  itiix.-i<n  nic,  rest,  into  sabbatism,  clearly  leads  us  .  .  to  the  spiritual 
sabbath  of  which  tlie  Jewisli  doctors  speak  so  generally  as  the  great  thing 
signified  by  their  sabbath."  Also  Osiaiider,  about  the  time  of  the  Reform- 
ation :  "  l)e  ([ua  requie  sempiterua  ad  Ilebrajos,  cap.  4,  ita  loquitur 
Apostolus,  ut  hoc  ipsum  mysterium  nobis,  veluti  digito,  commonstrare 
videatur." 

Mr.  Brown  disputes  this  from  the  etymology  of  the  word  sabbath,  as 
simply  meaning  rest  (see  p.  182,  Note t  supra):  but  the  meaning  con- 
veyed to  the  Hebrew  mind  by  the  word  cannot  surely  be  with  reason 
overlooked.     So  much  were  sabbath  and  septenary  associated  together  in  it 

*  So  nancock,  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  p.  5.1.  t  See  Appendix  a<l  init. 


104  OUR    PRESENT   POSITION 


ter  was  universally  received  and  promulgated.*  Which 
being  so,  the  chronological  question  on  which  I  am  now 
entering  becomes  one  of  really  im{)ortant  bearing  on  the 
point  in    hand ;  I  mean   the  question,    what  the  world's 

that,  as  Sclileusner  observes  on  the  word  ^u^^aiur,  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lators sometimes  render  the  word  £"3113  by  ifH^viiui;. 

It  is  a  word  applied  to  the  seventh  year  of  rest  in  the  Mosaic  law,  as 
well  as  to  the  seventh  day  of  rest.     See  Lev.  25  :  4,  &c. 

*  I  may  specify  more  particularly  the  pseudo-Barnabas,  a  writer  of 
unquestionably  a  very  early  age  in  the  Church;  also  Irenceus,  Cyprian, 
Lactantius. 

1.  Barnabas.  Kai  cTroir^nev  o  &iuc  cr  i^  i^jLUOiiie  ru  irtyaiwv  /nQun'  avTov, 
zai  avreTtkicitv  ti'  t»;  t^utna  t;;  sjidoutj,  y.ai  xuTtnavotv  fy  uvni,  xai  '^yicc- 
atr  uvTiji:  JlnoOc/eii,  Texru,  ri  ?.cyst  to  nvvfTi^.eotr  tr  t|  S^ttioaig'  TovTo 
Xf/ei  oTi  ovtTiXd  6  ^fo?  Kvniug  tf  sc«xi(J/i/.(oij  inoi  ru  TruiTcc.  'H  yafi 
i^iiina  nu'J  avTo)  /iJ-iul  tTtj'  avTog  de  uuqtvqh  ?.cywr,  iSov  (it-ufo<jy  i^uioa  tOTUi 
ojf  j?''^-iu  trrj.  Ovy.ovv  ttxra  sv  t'  t^utoaic,  tv  tiuy.to^riltoig  treni,avrTe/.i(J- 
6ij(iiTai  ra  navra.  Km  yarirravot  t>;  \inna  tij  s^Soitr.  Tovro  Xiyn, 
oTuv  i/.6wv  6  Ylos  uvtov,  yai  yaTuoyi^net  rur  yatnov  urouov,  y.ui  x'jirci 
Tof?  aaciiiig,  xcti  a'/J.a'lii  lov  i^i.iov,  xui  T);v  ai}.>p}jv,  xai  rovg  aonoag,  tors 
xa?.(iig  xaranuvotrai  tv  rtj  i^ufofj  Ti;  i^doui}.     c.  15. 

2.  Irenceus,  'Oaaig  ijinouig  tytrcro  o  xonuog,  rociovToig  /iXiovraai 
avmf.eiTui.  Kai  Sia  rovro  (pr^Oiv  i;  YQtx(pi;,  Kai  avvirt'Aiadi^aav  o  ovourog 
xai  i;  yi],  xai  nag  6  xoa^iog  avrmv  xai  avvtrt'/.eoiv  o  ©jo?  (v  rti  ifii'jq  Tn 
g'  ra  ^Q'/a  avrov  u  siroiyjos,  xai  xartntxvoiv  6  0eog  tr  tij  i^uiQrt  Tii  ^'  ano 
Trarrviv  rwv  cnymv  avrov.  Tovro  6'  lari  rwv  Tiooycyororwy  (Jiiy/j/aic,  xui  ruiv 
taouivwv  TTQoiptjrtia:  ij  yaq  i,uiQa  Kvotov  cog  xi^ta  jt»;.  Adv.  Hter.  v. 
ad  fin. 

3.  Qu(Est.  et  Respons.,  which  go  under  the  name  of  Justin  Martyr, 
No.  71:  Eriari  dia  noXXwr  yoaq'ixLov  (fiurvyr  riyur^Quo&ai  a?.tr,6sviv  rovg 
?.tyorrag  s^axiaj(i?.ia  trtj  itvui  rov  y^novov  rijg  jraQovatjg  tou  xoauov 
auoransuig. 

4.  Cyprian.  "Ut  primi  in  dispositione  divina  septem  dies,  annorum 
septem  millia  continentes."     De  Exh.  Mart.  11. 

5.  Lactantius.  "  Quoniam  sex  diebus  cuncta  Dei  opera  perfecta  sunt, 
per  secula  sex,  id  est  annoi'um  sex  millia,  manere  in  hoc  statu  mundum 
necesse  est.  .  .  Et  rursus,  quoniam  perfectis  operibus  requievit  die  sep- 
timo,  eumque  benedixit,  necesse  est  ut  in  fine  sexti  millesimi  anni  malitia 
omnis  aboleatur  e  terra,  et  regnct  per  annos  mille  justitia."    vii.  14. 

6.  Ambrose.  "  Quia  cum  septimo  die  requieverit  Dens  ab  omnibus 
opeiibus  suis,  post  hebdomadam  istius  mundi  quies  diuturna  promittitur. " 
In  Luc.  viii.  2'6. 

For  notices  to  the  same  effect  from  Jerome  and  Augustine,  see  my  Vol. 
i.,  p.  371.  Besides  the  passage  there  cited,  Augustine  speaks  of  it  also  in 
his  C.  D.  XX.  7.  1.  Feuardeiitius,  in  his  Note  on  the  passage  quoted 
above  from  Irenteus,  adds  Hilary  on  Matt,  xviii. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  anti-premilleuarian  fathers  of  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries  explained  the  sabbatical  seventli  day  as  typical,  not  of 
a  seventh  sabbatical  .Millennium  of  rest,  but  an  eternal  sabbath:  —  a 
view  generally  adopted  afterwards.  In  the  pseudo-Barnabas'  view  (ibid.), 
it  seems  to  have  been  rather  the  Christian  sabbath  on  the  "eighth"  day 
that  typified  the  saints'  eternal  rest;  the  Jetvish  seventh-day  sabbath  the 
millennial. 


IN   THE  PROPHETIC   CALENDAR. 


105 


present  age,  dated  from  Adam's  creation,  and  ichen  the  ter- 
mination of  its  sixth  millcnanj.  Nor  is  there  wanting 
the  evidence  rei^uisite  for  our  attaining  a  near  approxima- 
tion to  this  notable  epoch.  Mr.  Fynes  Clinton,  in  his 
Essay  on  Hebrew  Chronology,  a{)pended  to  the  third 
volume  of  his  late  learned  work,  entitled  Fasti  Hellcnici, 
has  greatly  elucidated  the  subject.  Setting  aside  the  many 
mundane  chronologies,  such  as  Hales  has  enumerated, 
based  (if  such  a  word  may  be  used)  on  the  baseless  founda- 
tion of  authorities  that  altogether  lack  authority,  our  only 
real  appeal  is  to  Scripture.     And  here,*  on  the  great  pri- 

*  The  following  tabular  schemes  exhibit  the  v.iiMations :  the  numbers 
expressing  the  parent's  age  at  the  son's  birth,  except  in  the  cases  of  Noah 
and  Shcm;  and  Abraham's  birth  being  assigned  t«  Terah's  130th  year, 
the  true  date.     (See  Note  t  p-  -oG  infra. ) 

Antcdihivian  Patriarchs. 


Adam  .   .   . 
Selh  .  .    .    . 

i^rios  .  .  . 
Cainan  .  . 
Mabalalcel 
Jared  .  .  . 
Enoch  .  .  , 
Methuselah 
Lantech   .   . 


10.  JVoah  (at  the  flood) 


130 

105 

90 

70 

Go 

1G2 

G5 

187 

182 

600 


130 
105 
90 
70 
05 
G2 
65 
67 
53 
GOO 


I-XX. 


230 
205 
190 
170 
165 
162 
165 
187 
188 
GOO 


Josephus. 


230 
205 
190 
170 
165 
162 
(1)65* 
187 
182 
GOO 


*  165  is  doubtless  ) 
the  correct  reading.  ) 


Total 


1G56 


1307 


2262 


2256 


Postdiluvian  Patriarchs. 


11. 

1-2. 

[C; 
13. 
14. 
15. 
16. 
17. 
18. 
19. 


Sheni    (aged   100    at   the 

Flood) 

Arphaxad 

linau  spurious 

Salah  

Hebcr 

Pclcj 

Reu 

Serug  

J^i'uhor 

Terah  (Gen.  11:  32, 12:  4) 

So  to  Abraham 


2 
35 

30 
34 
30 
82 
30 
29 
130 


Samaritan. 


2 
135 

130 
134 
130 
132 
130 
79 
130 


2 
135 
130 
130 
134 
130 
132 
130 
79 
130 


Josephus. 


12 
135 

-] 
130 
134 
130 
130 
132 
120 
130 


352 


1002 


1002 


1053 


106  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

mary  disputed  question  of  the  Patriarchal  chronologies^ 

and  whether  it  be  the  Hebreto  text  with  its  shorter  chronol- 
ogy, that  has  by  fraud  been  robbed  of  elevva  centuries,  or 
the  Sej)tuacjiiit  witli  its  longer,  that  has  had  them  fraudu- 
lently added  (for  that  the  diftereuce  is  the  result  of  design 
is  a  thing  evident,  and  long  since  noted  by  Augustine*), 
the  answer  seems  on  every  account  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
Hebrew  text: — considering,  first  the  superior  reverence 
and  almost  superstitious  care,  with  Avhich  the  Hebrew  text 
was  watched  over,  as  compared  with  the  Septuagint ;  f — 
next,  the  wonderful  uniformity  of  the  numerals  of  the  He- 
brew text,  in  all  its  multitudes  of  manuscripts  existing  in 
diflferent  parts  of  the  world,  contrasted  with  the  varieties 
and  uncertainty  of  the  numerals  in  the  Septuagint  and 
Samaritan: J — considering, /w;-i?/ie/",  the  general  agreement 

Jerom  (Vol.  ii.,  p.  573),  in  his  Letter  to  Evaugelius  about  Melchisedek, 
thus  gives  and  reasons  on  tlie  numerals  : 

They  say  that  Shem  was  31)0  years  when  Alarain  was  born.     For 
Shem     at     100  begat  Arphaxad,  and  lived  100  years  after. 
Salem. 
Eber. 
Phaleg. 
Rehu. 
Saleg. 
Nahor. 

Abram,  Nahor,  and  Hai'an. 
Therefore  Shem  overlived  him  35  years. 
*  In  the  Antediluvian  Table  (wdiere  the  question  is  between  the  Hebrew 
and  Josephus),  the  years  before  ihc  son^s  birth  and  the  residues  agree  in 
all  cases  with  the  totals  of  the  lives;  except  that  in  the  Samaritan  the 
residues  in  tlie  sixth,  eighth,  and  ninth  are  shortened,  to  adapt  them  to 
the  shorter  period  between  Jared  and  the  Hood.     TlnTs, 

in  tlic  Hebrew  and  Samaritan  ^dam  has     130  -|-  800  =  930. 
....  Septuagint  and  .Josephus  230  -j-  700  =  930. 

Again  in  the  Hebrew  and  Samaria  Seih  has  105  -[-  807  =  912. 

....  Septuagint  and  Josephus  205  +  707  =  912. 

This  can  only  have  been  by  design.  So  Augustine  Civ.  Dei.  xv.  13.  1  : 
"  Videtur  habere  quamdam,  si  dici  potest,  error  ipse  constantiam;  nee 
casum  redolet  sed  industriam."  And  so  Mr.  Clinton, 
t  The  Jews  even  counted  the  letters  of  their  Bible. 
t  Professor  Bauivjarten,  of  Halle,  in  his  Remai'ks  on  Universal  His- 
tory, observes :  "  Botli  the  Samaritan  copy  and  the  Greek'version  abound 
in  various  readings,  with  respect  to  their  difterent  clironologies,  and  fre- 
quently contradict  tliemselves  :  whereas  the  Hebrew  is  uniform  and  con- 
sistent in  all  its  copies."  And  Mr.  Kennedy,  in  his  Chronology  of  the 
World,  says,  that  in  examining  the  Hebrew  text,  he  "was  not  able  to 
discover  one  various  reading  in  that  multitude  of  numeral  words  and  let- 
ters which  constitute  the  scriptural  series  of  years  from  the  Creation  to 
the  death  of  Nebuchadnezzar." 


Arphaxad  . 

35 

Salem  .  .  . 

30 

Eber 

34 

Phaleg.  .. 

30 

Rehu 

32 

Saleg  .... 

30 

Nahor  . .  . 

70 

Abraham  d 

ed  at  175 

IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         107 

of  the  Samaritan  with  the  Hebrew  in  the  chronology  of 
the  antcdilitiian  patriarchs,*  and  its  thus  fixing  the  fraud 
in  that  table  at  least,  and  by  probable  consequence  in  the 
jwstdiluvian  table  also,  on  the  Scptuagint :  —  considering 
moreover  the  better  agreement  of  historical  fact  with  the 
Hebrew  than  Avith  the  Septuagintjf  and  the  more  easily 

I  quote  this  from  a  paper  on  the  subject  in  the  Christian  Observer  for 
May,  1802,  p.  'J87;  and,  in  further  illustration  of  the  uniformity  of  the 
Hebrew  copies  in  respect  of  their  numerals,  may  add  from  it  tliat  the 
Chalikc  Paraphrase  of  Onkclos,  written  probably  near  about  the  time  of 
Christ,  ngrecs  Avlth  the  Hebrew  chronologies,  and  that  the  same  are 
recognized  in  the  two  Talmmh;  —  also  that  Dr.  Wolff  informs  me  that 
"  in  the  ancient  manuscripts  which  he  saw  at  Bokhara  the  chronological 
notices  of  the  length  of  lives,  both  of  the  antediluvian  and  the  postdilu- 
vian patriarchs,  were  exactly  according  to  the  received  Hebrew  text, 
though  the  letters  of  the  manuscripts  resembled  Samaritan." 

As  reg.inls  the  Samaritan,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  manuscript 
from  which  our  Samaritan  Pentateuch  was  published,  being  written 
about  A.  D.  1100,  was  consequently  not  nearly  so  old  as  many  Hebrew 
manuscripts.  And  in  earlier  existing  copies  of  it  we  know  that  there 
were  certain  variations  to  the  numerals,  more  accordant  with  the  Hebrew. 
So  the  English  Universal  History,  referred  to  in  the  Christian  Observer. 
See  Note  '  infra. 

Of  the  errors  of  the  Scptiiaf/int  numerals,  in  many  copies,  a  notable 
example  is  given  by  Augustine,  C.  D.  xv.  11.  For  it  seems  that  in  almost 
all  the  copies  then  extant  .^fcthuselah  wsis  made  to  have  begotten  Lamech 
at  the  age  of  107,  and  to  have  lived  802  years  af\er  :  that  is,  fourteen 
years  after  the  flood,  according  to  the  Septungint  chronology  itself; 
though  we  know  tiiat  no  man  but  Noah,  and  his  three  sons  Shem,  Ham 
and  Japhet,  were  preserved  alive  through  it ! 

*  Nameh',  in  the  cases  of  all  but  the  sixth,  eighth,  and  ninth  Patri- 
archs. Here  the  Samaritan  residues  are  shortened  to  adapt  them  to  the 
shorter  period,  made  by  the  shorter  (jenealogies  corresponding  between 
Jared  and  the  flood;  to  the  intent  that  these  Patriarchs  might  not  be 
thought  to  have  been  involvetl  in  it.  But  we  are  told  by  Jerome  (so  the 
compilers  of  our  English  Universal  History  have  remarkofl)  that  in  his 
time  there  were  some  Samaritan  copies  which  made  Methuselah's  and 
Lamech' s  .age^,  at  the  birth  of  their  sons,  the  same  as  the  Hebrew. 

t  On  the  two  points  alleged  in  their  own  favor  by  the  advocates  of  the 
Septuagint  Chronology,  ^Ir.  Clinton  quite  turns  the  tables  against  them. 
1st.  as  to  the  age  of  the  nuK'^nyutiu,  which  these  writers  have  placed  after 
the  lapse  of  one  third  of  life,  Mr.  C.  says  that  it  appears  from  Scripture 
to  have  been  in  the  Patriarchal  ago  as  early  as  it  is  now;  Judah  being  at 
fortj' -eight  a  grejit-grandfitlier,  —  Beni.miin  having,  under  thirty,  ten 
sons,  &c.  2.  As  to  the  Di^perfion  at  liabel,  which  the  Soptuagintarians 
say  implies  a  mundane  pojiulation  such  as  could  not  have  been  according 
to  the  Hebrew  postdiluvian  chronology,  Mr.  C.  answers,  that  under 
favorable  circumstances,  even  now,  it  lins  been  calculated  that  population 
may  be  doubled  in  ten  years;  that  cases  are  known  where  it  has  doubled 
for  short  periods  in  less  than  thirteen  years;  and  that  in  the  older  case  of 
the  Israelites  in  Egypt,  and  later  of  certain  parts  of  the  North  American 


108  OUR    PRESENT   TOSITION 

supposablc  object*  with  the  Septuagint  translators  than 
with  the  keepers  of  the  Hebrew  text,  as  well  as  better  op- 
portunity f  for  falsifying  in  the  matter.    This  point  settled,  J 

colonies,  the  population  doubled  itself  in  ^/<ccn  years:  —  that  the  circum- 
stances of  the  first  families  after  the  flood  were  precisely  the  most  favorable 
to  increase  of  population,  with  all  the  artsof  tlie  autediluvian  world,  unoc- 
cupied land  to  a  boundless  extent  before  them,  and  lives  extended  to  500, 
400,  and  200  years  : — that  tiius  we  may  reasonably  assume  twelve  years, 
at  the  most,  as  that  of  the  population  doubling  itself:  on  which  assumption 
the  population  of  the  earth,  derived  from  the  stock  of  six  parents,  would 
in  27G  years  amount  to  above  fifty  millions,  and  in  300  years  to  two  hun- 
dred millions.  Even  at  the  rate  of  fifteen  years,  it  would  have  reached 
two  hundred  millions  in  373  years  from  the  flood;  that  is,  in  the  twenty- 
fourth  year  from  Abraham.  Now,  at  the  time  of  the  Dispersion,  had  the 
world's  population  then  amounted  to  many  millions,  men  would  have  been 
forced  by  theii-  wants  to  disperse;  whereas  the  Sacred  History  tells  us 
that  it  took  place  contrary  to  the  ivishes  of  men,  who  desired  all  to  dwell 
together.  A  population  of  about  50,000  would  just  answer  the  proba- 
bilities of  the  case.  And  this  number  must  have  been  reached  within 
IGO  years  from  the  flood;  that  is,  about  the  thirtieth  year  of  Peleg  (accord- 
ing to  the  Hebrew  chronology) ;  in  whose  days  it  is  said  (Gen.  10 :  25)  that 
the  Dispersion  occurred. 

*  Jackson  allows  that  it  is  difficult  to  see  the  motives  of  the  Jews  in 
shortening  the  patriarchal  genealogies.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Septuagint 
translatoi'S  had  an  obvious  motive  for  enlai'ging  the  chronology.  The 
Chaldeans  and  Egyptians  (whose  histories  were  about  this  time  published 
by  Berosus  and  Manetho)  laid  claim  to  a  remote  antiquity.  Hence  these 
translators  of  the  Pentateuch  might  have  been  led  in  a  spirit  of  rivalry 
to  augment  the  amount  of  the  generations  of  their  ancestors,  alike  by  the 
centenary  additions,  and  by  the  interpolation  (as  Hales  himself  allows  it 
is)  of  the  second  Cainaan. 

t  Augustine,  whose  four  chapters  on  this  subject  (C.  D.  xv.  10 — 14) 
well  deserve  attentive  perusal,  has  put  this  point  very  strongly.  Which, 
says  he,  is  most  credible,  —  that  the  Jews,  dispersed  over  all  the  world, 
should  have  conspired  together  to  defraud  their  Scriptures  and  themselves 
of  tr-uth,  the  exclusive  possession  of  which  is  so  much  their  boast;  or  that 
the  seventy  Greek  translators,  united  together  in  conclave  by  King 
Ptolemy,  should  have  managed  to  fixlsify  the  numerals?  He  adds  (13.  2), 
as  his  own  solution  of  the  matter,  that  it  was,  after  all,  probably  not  the 
translators,  but  ihe  first  transcriber  of  the  manuscript  from  the  original 
in  the  royal  library,  that  introduced  the  error;  "  Scriptoris  tribuatur 
errori  qui  de  Bibliotheca  supradicti  Regis  codicem  describendum  primus 
accepit :  "  and  concludes  thus  :  "  Ei  linguae  potiiis  credatur  unde  est  in 
aliam  per  interpretes  facta  translatio."  Augustine's  testimony  is  the 
more  valuable  and  remarkable  because  he  was  himself  originally  (see  my 
Note  in  Vol.  i.,  p.  371)  a  Septuagintarian  in  chronology.  At  the  conclu- 
sion of  the  C.  1).,  however,  he  measui-es  the  six  periods  of  the  Avorld  pre- 
ceding its  septenary  period,  or  sabbath,  by  eras,  not  millennaries:  the  1st 
to  the  flood,  2nd  to  .Abraham,  3rd  to  David,  4th  to  the  Babylonish  Cap- 
tivity, 5th  to  Christ,  and  Gth  that  after  Christ.     C.  D.  xxii.  30.  5. 

t  It  is  to  be  observed,  as  Clinton  remarks,  p.  293,  that  the  question  is 
not  an  indefinite  one,  from  Avant  of  testimony,  so  as  in  the  case  of  the 


IN    THE    rUOPIIETIC    CALENDAR.  109 

there  remain  but  two  sjiiall  chasms  in  the  Hebrew  chronol- 
ogy to  fill  up,  and  one  doubtful  point  to  settle,  arising  from 
a  difference  between  an  Old  Testament  statement  and  one 
in  the  New  Testament,  in  order  to  the  completion  of  our 
chronological  tal)le.  The  chasms  arc.  1st,  that  from  Moses' 
death  to  the  first  servitude ;  *  2ndlj,  that  between  Sam- 
son's death  and  Saul's  election  to  the  kingdom  :  f  of  neither 
of  Avhich  could  the  length  bo  7ni(rli  longer  or  sliorter  than 
thirty  or  forty  years.  J  The  doubt J'nJ  point  alhuled  to  con- 
cerns the  same  period  of  the  Judges :  it  being  whether  the 
reckoning  given  in  1  Kings  G  :  1,  of  the  interval  from  the 
Exodus  to  the  building  of  Solomon's  temple,  at  480  years, 
be  the  correct  one."§>  or  that  by  St.  Paul,  in  Acts  13 :  18 — 
22,  at  about  580.  ||     Mr.  Clinton,  not  without  reason,  as  it 

early  chronolog3'  of  Greece.  The  uncertainty  is  one  ari.sing  from  two 
dilicrent  distinct  testimonies.  We  have  only  to  decide  which  is  tlie  genu- 
ine and  authentic  copy.  Either  the  space  before  ihejiood  was  1C5G  ye.ars, 
or  it  was 'J'2;'H).  Either  the  period  from  the  flood  to  the  call  of  Abraham 
was  352  years,  or  it  was  1002.  "  Tlicse  periods  could  not  be  greater  than 
the  highest  of  these  numbers,  or  less  than  the  lowest." 

*  This  period  is  that  comjirohcndcd  in  Josh.  24  :  31  :  "And  Israel 
served  the  Lord  all  the  days  of  Joshua,  and  all  the  days  of  the  elders  tliat 
overlived  Joshua,  and  which  had  known  all  the  works  of  the  Lord  that  he 
had  done  for  Israel." 

t  Compare  Judg.  15 :  20;  IG  :  31,  and  1  Sam.  4  :  1  ;  7  :  13  ;  12  :  2. 

t  Mr.  Brooks,  in  the  preface  to  his  late  history  of  the  Jews,  p.  xiii., 
argues  that  tlie  interval  from  jNIoscs'  death  to  Joshua's  must  probably 
have  been  longer,  because  of  Joshua  being  called  -|y3  a  young  man  in 
Exod.  33  :  11,  and  Numb.  11 :  28,  with  reference  to  the  second  year 
after  the  Exodus.  But  this  Hebrew  word  is  used  to  designate  servants 
also  (compare  Gen.  22:  3,  &c.);  and  Joshua  is  so  called  in  the  places 
above  cited  as  the  servant  of  Moses.  (So  Kimchi  explains  this  appella- 
tive of  Joslnia  in  Zech.  2  :  7;  and  so,  I  may  add,  Ambrose  comments  on 
Gen.  24  :  2;  "  Etiam  sonioris  astatis  servuli  piieri  dicantur  a  doniinis.") 
Thus  the  appellation  can  no  more  be  argued  from  than  the  French  word 
garcon  or  English  ;)o,s<6oi/.  Moreover,  at  tlie  time  of  the  division  of  the 
land,  seven  j'cars  after  Moses'  death  (.Josh  14  :  10),  Joshua  is  said  (ibid. 
13:  1)  to  have  been  "old  and  stricken  in  years."  Thus  Mr.  Clinton 
seems  fairly  to  have  estimated  Joshua's  age,  at  the  time  of  the  spies,  at 
about  forty;  it  being  the  then  age  of  his  associate  Caleb,  also,  who  over- 
lived him.  See  Judges  1:  1,  U — 12.  If  so,  as  Josjiua  was  110  years  at  his 
death  (see  Josh  24  :  2'.)),  the  interval  must  have  been  110 — (38-4-40) 
=32. 

§  1  Kings  6  :  1.  —  "It  came  to  pass  in  the  480th  year  after  the  children 
of  Israel  were  come  out  of  tlie  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  fourth  year  of  Solo- 
mon's reign  over  Israel,  that  he  began  to  build  the  house  of  the  Lord." 

II  Acts  13:18.  —  "  Forty  years  suifered  he  their  mannei-s  in  the  wildei'- 
nes3 :  and  when  he  had  destroyed  seven  nations  in  Canaan,  he  divided 

10 


110 


OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 


seems  to  inc,  prefers  the  latter.*  And  thus,  completing  his 
table,  he  makes  the  date  of  the  Creation  to  be  about  4138 

their  land  to  them  by  lot :  and  after  that,  he  gaye  unto  them  judges  about 
the  space  of  four  hundred  and  fifty  years,  until  Samuel  the  prophet. 
And  aftenvards  they  desired  a  king  :  and  God  gave  them  Saul." 

*  Because  the  servitudcx  must  be  included  in  the  periods  of  rest,  on  the 
shorter  system ;  which  inclusion  seems  directly  contrary  to  the  tenor  of 
the  Scripture  statements.  (Cut  for  this  the  Hebrew  might  reasonably  be 
deemed  of  the  greater  weight;  and  St.  Paul's  450  years  be  explained 
cither,  as  AVhitby  prefers,  by  reference  to  the  then  current  Septuagint  chro- 
nology;  or  possibly,  not  probably,  as  Usher,  by  supposing  it  the  measure  of 
the  time  from  Abraham  to  the  division  of  the  lauds,  not  from  the  division  of 
the  lands  to  Samuel. )t  A  chronological  table  of  this  pei-iod,  formed  from 
the  express  declarations  in  the  Book  of  Judges,  is  given  below  :  —  it  being 
premised  that  Chushan's  oppression  followed  (Judg.  3:  7)  on  IsracVs  first 
apostasy  to  the  worship  of  Baalim,  on  the  death  of  the  elders  that  over- 
lived Joshua. 


Servitudes. 

Y'rs. 

Rests  and  Judges. 

Yr's. 

1st.   Chushan   (Judges 

3:8.) 

8 

1st.  Rest  (Judg.  3  :   11.) 

40 

2nd.  Eglon  (3  :  U.)    . 

18 

2nd.  "         "     (3  :  30.) 

80 

3rd.  Jabin  (4:3.)    .  • 

20 

3rd.  "         "     (5  :  31.) 

40 

4th.  Midian  (6  :  1.).   . 

7 

4th.  ("the  days  of  Gideon,"  8  :    28.) 

40 

Abimelech's  judging,  (9  :  22.)  .  .    . 

3 

Tola's               do.     (10:2.)    .    .    . 

23 

Jair's               do.      (10:3.)    .    .    . 

22 

5th.  Ammon  (10  :  8.)  . 

18 

.Jephthah         do.       (12:7.)  .    .    . 

6 

Ibzan,  Elon,  Abdon,  (12 :  8—14.)   . 

25 

6th.  Philistines  (13:1.) 

40 

[Samson  20  years,  and  Eli.] 

111 

279 

This  last  Philistinian  servitude  of  forty  years  appears  to  have  included 
the  judgeships  of  both  Samson  and  Eli  :  the  former  being  said  (15  :  20  ; 

t  So  too  Calmet,  quoted  to  that  effect  by  Dr.  A.  Clarke.  In  order  to  this  construction 
of  the  passage  from  near  the  beginning  of  verse  17,  to  the  end  of  verse  19,  in  Acts  xiii., 
must  be  construed  parenthetically  thus  : 

'O  Gioc  roll  '/MQV  TuvTov  loqariX  i%fy.tzaxo  Tovg  naxiQag  ijiu>v,  (Kai  Tov 
Xaov  vxlJvwev  iv  t»  naooixin  tv  yii  yliyvmw,  xai  fitra  ^Qayjorog  viptjXov 
t^tivuvtr  avroi'g  t J  uvtjjs.  Kui  tog  TiaatouxovrutTt]  )rQovo%'  cTQ07TO(poQy}aiv 
avrovg  tv  Ti)  lOtjuio.  Kut  xa6i?.u)v  t6vt;  inra  tvyvi  Xaruav,  y.uTey.f.riQoroftt]- 
aiv  avToig  Tf;»-  yyjv  atTiDv.)  Kai  utra  rut'Tu,  log  trtot  Titnuxoaioig  xai 
ntvTtjy.ovTa,  dvixt  xntrug  scic  ^auonrp.  tot  TTQotpijTov, 

In  order  to  make  out  the  450  years  on  this  view,  the  chronological  epoch  of  God's 


IN    THE    PROPHETIC    CALENDAR. 


Ill 


B.  C. ;  and  consequently  the  end  of  tlie  6000  years  of  the 
world,  and  opening  of  the  seventh  INIillonniuui,  by  opproxi- 
matioii.  about  A.  D.  1862:  — the  same  year,  very  nearly, 
that  we  before  fixed  on  as  the  epoch  of  the  consummation, 
on  quite  different  data.*  —  I  cannot  but  add  that  this  con- 

IC)  :  31)  to  have  .imlgcd  Israel  "  in  the  days  of  the  Philistines:''^  and  the 
latter  to  liavc  died  from  _a;rief  at  tlieir  detwvt  of  Israel,  and  capture  of  the 
ark.  Their  supremaey  continued  until  Samuel's  defeat  of  them  near 
Mizpeh,  of  which  the  stone  Ebenezer  was  the  record  (1  Sam.  7:  V2): 
after  which  Israel  had  rest  "all  the  days  of  Samuel"  (ihid.  13);  until 
he  was  old  (8  :    1  ;  12  :  2),  and  anointed  Saul  king. 

Thus  the  lime  of  the  Judijes,  exclusive  of  Joshua  and  Samuel,  appears 
from  these  numbers  to  have  Viceu  3".i0  years:  and  if  we  add  oi)  years  for 
Joshua  and  the  Efrypt-born  elders  that  over-lived  Joshua,  reckoned  from 
after  the  time  of  the  conquest  and  division  of  CaniiJin  (about  seven  years 
having  intervened  between  that  event  and  iMoscs'  death),  and  30  years 
more  for  Samuel's  judgeship  after  the  Philistines'  defeat,  it  exactly  makes 
up  St.  Paul's  "about  the  space  of  450  years."  Add  7  for  the  conquest 
of  Canaan,  40  for  the  wilderness,  40  for  Saul,  and  40  for  David  :  and  then 
the  4th  year  of  Solomon  comes  to  be  about  the  580th  year  from  the  Exude  ; 
instead  of  tlic  480th,  as  the  Hebrew  text  dclines  it  in  1  Kings  G  :  1.  And 
therefore  the  only  solution  of  the  dilliculty,  that  I  sec,  is  by  supposing  a 
mistaken  reading  in  our  Hebrew  copies  of  480  for  580. 


D.    C. 

A.  M. 

Ye.irs. 

4138 

Adam         .... 

2482 
2130 

1656 
2008 

The  Deluge  t 
Birth  of  Abraham 

1656 
352 

2055 

2083 

The  Call    .... 

75 

1025 

2513 

The  Exode 

430 

1585 

2553 

Death  of  Moses 

40 

1558 
1128 

2580 
3010 

First  Servitude  (by  conjecture)     . 
Death  of  Eli 

27 
430 

lOOG 
1056 

3042 
3082 

Election  of  Saul  (by  conjecture) 
David         .         ■    . 

32 

40 

1016 

3122 

Solomon    .... 

40 

076 

3162 

Rehoboam .... 

40 

587 

3551 

Zedekiah's  Captivity 

380 

choosing  tho  fiithors  of  tlio  .Tc'wish  people,  referred  to  iu  verse  17,  is  fixed  at  the  birth  of 
Isuiic  ;  from  which  to  the  division  of  tlie  liiml  Iiy  lot  is  by  some  chroi)olo);ists  (not  by  Mr. 
Clinton)  maile  452  years.  But  it  seems  to  nie  that  the  necessity  of  datini;  from  Isaac's 
birth,  instead  of  Abraliara's  call,  in  order  on  any  chronolojrical  system  to  make  out  the 
time  from  the  " choosin};  of  the  fathers"  to  the  division  of  Canaan  not  more  than  450 
years,  constitutes  a  strong  objection  to  this  solution  of  the  passajre.  Besides  that  the 
fifTit  TitiiTK,  after  tlir.ie  tliinyD,  in  the  plural,  seems  to  make  it  almost  imperative  on  us 
that  we  should  date  the  450  years  from  the  end  of  tlic  succession  of  rvrnt.i  that  the 
apostle  had  just  been  particularizin);,  not  from  the  one  event  of  the  ciioicc  of  the  fathers 
first  mentioned. 

t  I  am  informed  by  the  Uev.  Mr.  Squire,  who  w.ns  some  time  in  China,  that  there  is  on 
two  imjuirUmt  epochs  of  early  nnindane  chronolotry  a  considerable  correspondence 
between  the  Chinese  and  the  Scriptural  Chronology;  uamely,  that  of  Ihc Deluye  and  the 


112  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

elusion  by  Mr.  Clinton  as  to  the  Avorld's  age,  from  purely 
literary  data,  agrees  remarkably  with  the  celebrated  Cuvier's 
from  (jeolofjical  data :  for  he  thence  infers  that  the  date  of 
our  earth's  last  great  physical  revolution  cannot  go  back 
much  further  than  5000  or  GOOO  years.* 

On  the  fiy-leaf  is  appended  a  Tabular  Scheme  of  this  Scripture  Chro- 
nology, with  the  scriptural  authorities  in  brief,  drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  C. 
Bowen.t  [Instead  of  giving  the  "  tly-leaf,"  we  have  given  I^Ir.  Bowen's 
scheme,  in  a  Chro.  Table  of  our  own.  —  See  Note  on  page  158.  —  Amer- 
ican Editor. 

*  I  cite  from  the  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  AViseman's  6th  interesting 

seven  years  of  general  famine  under  Joseph.  The  Chinese  dates  the  Deluge  A.  M. 
1713,  and  the  seven  years  of  famine  B.  C.  1729.  So,  he  says,  in  ilorison's  View  of 
China,  and  a  work  by  Professor  Kidd. —  As  to  the  seven  years  of  famine,  many  of  my 
reailers  may  liave  seen  the  very  iuterestiiifr  apparent  reference  to  it  in  one  of  the  ancient 
Ilamyarltic  inscrijitions  on  tlie  rocks  of  the  Southern  Arab  coast,  beyond  Aden,  as 
exi)laine<l  by  >lr.  Forster,  in  his  Uistorical  Geography  of  Arabia.  On  which  see  my 
Note  2,  Vol.  i.,  p.  419. 

t  In  the  Jewish  Calendar,  as  lately  edited  by  Sir.  Lindo  (a  publication  replete  with 
Jewish  learning,  and  sanctioned  by  the  Chief  Rabbi  in  London,  Solomon  Hirschell),  there 
appear  several  most  material  variations  from  the  above  Chronological  Table  ;  involving  a 
difference  from  Mr.  Clinton's  in  the  iEra  of  the  World  altogether  of  340  years.  The  fol- 
lowing are  tlie  points  of  variation  : 

1.  Agreeing  with  Mr.  C-  in  dating  the  Deluge  A.  M.  1656,  it  makes  the  birth,  and 
consequently  the  call  too,  of  Abraham  sixty  years  earlier.  This  arises  from  the  supposi- 
tion of  Abraham's  being  the  eldest  of  Terah's  three  sons,  born  when  Terah  was  seventy 
years  old.  Gen.  11 :  26  ;  —  a  supposition  quite  unnecessary  :  as  Abraham's  first  mention 
among  the  three  sons  no  more  implies  his  primogeniture  than  Solomon's  last  mention 
among  Bathsheba's  four  sons,  1  Chron.  3:  5,  his  being  the  youngest ;  or  Shcm^s  first 
mention.  Gen.  10 :  1,  among  Noah's  three  sons,  his  being  eldest  (for  Jajihet  is  in  Gen. 
10 :  21  expressly  declared  eldest) :  and  which  is  directly  contradicted  by  the  statement, 
Gen.  12 :  4,  that  Abraham  was  lb  years  old  when  he  left  Ilaran  ;  compared  with  Acts 
1 :  4,  which  says  that  it  was  at  Terah's  death  that  Abraham  left  that  country,  and 
with  Gen.  11 :  32,  which  says  that  Terah  died  in  Ilaran,  at  the  age  of  20.5  years.  —  2. 
There  is  in  it  the  further  difference  of  100  years  less  between  this  event  and  Solomon's 
completion  of  the  Temple  ;  a  difference  grounded  mainly  on  the  circumstance  of  the 
Jews  calculating  liy  the  Chronological  stiitemeut  in  1  Kings  6 :  1,  noted  by  me  in  the 
text.  —  3.  The  Jewish  Calendar  shortens  the  inter\al  between  Solomon  and  Zedekiab's 
captivity  15  years  :  — and,  4thly,  that  between  Zedekiah  and  the  Christian  iEra  yet  165 
years.  By  the  latter  most  gross  and  extraordinary  falsification  of  a  period  as  well 
ascertained  as  that  between  our  Richard  the  First  and  the  time  now  present,  the  Jew- 
ish Rabbis  make  the  interval  between  the  first  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
Babylonians  and  second  by  the  Romans  just  about  490  j'ears. — Thus  there  is  nothing 
in  the  Jewish  nmndane  chronology  to  affect  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Clinton's. 

Let  me  add  that  the  early  reformers  noticed,  and  were  struck  with,  the  last  men- 
tioned strange  error  in  the  Jewish  chronology  ;  and  referretl  it  to  the  Jews'  identification 
of  Darius  Hystnspis  (father  to  Xerxes)  with  the  last  Darius  conquered  by  Alexander, 
and  obliteration  from  tliiir  calendar  of  all  the  Persian  kings  intervening.  So  Melanc- 
tAoJi  on  l)aii.  9  :  "  Ila-c  series  (that  is  of  the  Persian  kings)  nota  est  eraditis  omnibus  j 
et  inscitia  Judaeorum  recentium  vituperanda  est,  qui  fingunt  non  plures  fuissc  reges  Per- 
sicos  qui'iui  quatuor,  et  propter  banc  inscitiam  omittunt  ex  serie  annorum  mundi  centum 
annus."  And  Osiander,  De  Ult.  Tempor.  ch.  1  :  "  Qu6d  autem  Judsei  ab  orbe  condito 
ad  Cliristnm  200  annis  fere  minus  numerant  quam  nos,  in  causa  sunt,  cum  alii  multi 
errores,  ti'ini  ver(i  ille  omnium  maximus  quod  iJarium  Ilystaspis,  sub  quo  tcmiilum 
sediiicatuni  est,  et  Uarium  ab  Alexandro  devictum  pro  eodem  haheant,  ac  sex  tantum 
annis  regnasse  putent :  cum  ah  initio  regni  unius  (Darii)  us((ue  ad  finem  ulterius,  etiam 
secundiim  Ptolenia.'um,  192  anni  intercesserint."  —  But  why  this  abbreviation  ?  I  have 
nowhere  seen  a  reason  stated.  It  is  curious,  however,  that  by  it  the  interval  between 
the  first  destruction  of  the  Temple  and  the  second  is  reduced,  as  before  observed,  to 
about  490  years  ;  the  precise  eciuivalent  to  the  seventy  ivee/cs  of  Daniel :  and  is  (as  I 
learn  from  a  Jew)  so  stated  by  the  Jews,  l)y  a  kind  of  memoria  technica.  I  suspect 
therefore  that  to  make  those  periods  con-espond  may  have  been  the  abbreviator's  object. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR. 


113 


o 
o 

o 

p^ 

o 

CO 

:^ 

o 

EH 


Cunning- 
hame. 


Hales. 


JarTis. 


Usher. 


Bowen. 


rt  o  CI  I-  ^  CO  :o  00  CO  o       0^  :o  ^7  ^5  CO  rt  r3  I-  -t  ?3  .*  (N         -y  r.^  oo 


OtOOO*J5W*ftl^r10N»AOO*^*Ot^OCS»000<00>      CD     OOOXO 


rH         l-li-IO 


0»rtOO*ft'N^Ot-.MO«*000-^OC-10CltrtrHOCDC-1     O     COOOO 
.-        g,^ 


loooi-coeococccco      co      cocortr3coc*or2.i*  co  «) 


i-l        r-n-iO 


OOOOkft'M«Ot-C^OW»000-tO'MOC5  0  00t^O     O     OOOOOO 

coocai-coocDGOooo      CO      coror5«co<NOr3^      c^  -^i-ioo 

r-ir-(  rHr-lr-ltO  !N1> 


O»'5OOOC'1u0»-.C-lO'MU0OO-J<O'MOO»C0OOC0Cl      r-(     OOOOOO 

e?ooat-coco(oooooo      co      coeococococ-ioc-o^      ?-<    .-*        -^rnoo 

T-tiH  r^rHi-tcD  W-* 


0»-'^OO»ftM*«l''MOC-1*0OO-^*O^00S»»OOCDO     rH     OOOOOO 

r^ocii'Ocotoaooco      CO      eoeoeococ-oc^ors-^      i-(    ih        ■^r-too 


l-l         r-lrH  O 


-^  CO  JM 


cS'C'u    -   ^.C   CJ3   2j3   tTtC    ..="'C-^   -"    ^  ^ 


C0500»C-)kOaOr-i.OQOCDrH^1-    -fOCCO'M-f'M^ 


3  _3 

CO  "i 


5  ■M  "3 


10* 


S  c3  rt  cl 
,><  o  o  o 


.a  -  -  - 


114 


OUR    PRESENT    POSITION. 


CiinT-.:t.^  O  O  I-  O  CO  re  -M  ■»  O  I-  O  CO  O  O  O  71  O  O  O  l^  O  rH  O  -^  rH  -O  O  Ci 

haiiie. 


-M  ■M  o  to  <3> 

r-1  O  I-)  pH  C^ 


Hales.      "=^"^     ^     =^'' 


> -f  Zl  r-l -*  •* -f  i-l        •*!» 


_      _  >  rH  C-l  <£>  <0  0> 
Til  (M  1-1  >0  IHI-I  « 


00^-OCOCO'^laDO^-000000«^000^- COrHiOOOrHOOOSt-I'MfOOOS 


Usher. 


-Sl-Je^M  i-l  T)<         (N.^TJi-^iH        -J<«  a  CI        lOrlrllN 


Clinton. 


Ot^OrOre'MCOOt-OCOOOOOOOOt— COTH«OcOrH<OOOOC-100OT 
^         T)l         OlIMrl  r1        T)<  CO'*-3<->J'r-l         •*?)  .^c^         lOr1l-le^ 


C>-5<^         C1<Nt-1  rH         Ti<CO  'JlTlinii-l         ^JIS-J  -^NrHUSrHrHN 


■»  d  -  c 
111.1 


5s-s's-s:§g=-s 


i  1-5 -<  tH  ■<  1-5  <1  M 


^OOrHcOOClaj'-ICOr 


I         C-1  CO 

1  to  00  CO  o  - 


..-*l-I-C^MrH^J«-    C1?5«>r-j«2^|g^,c^gi 


2  to  o     S 

"1  i-l  C-1       c-i 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR. 


115 


Yi-ars  of  Ptolemy'3  Canon. 

U5C>r-(0rt001t- 

0      c      ^      „c                                                           1 

3 

S^'S  =  ;:J  =  St;^'-'-^-'-=»  =  r,:;35?3^-"-'-3S??§Sa^§gS?J 

d 

2 

>0         M         "        r-lM               1-1                     C3  (N  .*  fH  .*  !M                           rH  C^  n  C^  r-1  r<  »  C^  »  ?<  7< 

s 

0 

3 

§ 

! 

Ycurs  of  Ptolemy's  Canon. 

to       n        ri        t-i  71                                                                               0 

From  Cyrus'  decree  to  birth  ChrUt  536  years. 
g<srMoworH       Captivity.                                          0 

»«'NpHO^OOI^M-.#t-.?»t'QDO.-<wr5'-Oi-<M'^t-t-C^OOD»Or--*»Off.  ©OSM 


10        CO        r-( 


CO  !<■*  rl  •*  M 


rlNnPll-lN 


C<1-10>CQC<««C» 


5,  .5 


•  5  a    -  »r  2 

J=  "S  b"  3  i£  sJ 
^ |||.||.^?S- 


3 

"5  * 

-S 

J3 

■M 

0 
0 

."3 

"5  . 

.    c    . 

•  s  * 

•  tS 

0  a  • 

^illlj 

II 

: 

-  si  b 

ct  .C   —  ^    — ^   S  "^  ■—        0   t- 

"^"^^^^-^p'iZG"^    eS    tn    " 

".„ 

"  3  i 

'=:'3 

t 

t|;S 

116  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 


I  must  not  leave  this  subject  without  a  Avord,  in  passing, 
on  yet  another  more  dubious,  but  verjr  interesting  prophetic 
period.  I  allude  to  Ilia  sewn  I'nnes  of  Ncbiirh.(uhiezzars 
insanity  and  stale  of  bcstialisin.*  These,  calculated  after 
the  year-da}/  system,  upon  the  hypothesis  of  the  Babylon- 
ish king's  insanity  figuring  that  of  the  great  empires  which 
he  then  headed,  in  their  state  of  heathen  aberration  from  God 
(an  hypothesis  on  the  truth  of  which  I  do  not  myself  enter- 
tain much  doubt),  terminate  —  if  dated  from  the  time  B. 
C.  727,  when  the  Assyrians  under  Shalmanezer  first  acted 
the  u-ild  beast's  part  against  Israel  f —  about  the  year  1793  ; 
that  is,  at  the  epoch  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  the 
coincident  going  forth  of  the  Gospel  message  to  evangelize 
the  heathen.  This  seems  to  me  a  remarkable  synchronism  : 
especially  considering  that  the  bisecting  point  of  these  seven 
times  is  then  x\..  D.  533  ;  the  very  commencing  epoch,  with 
Justinian's  Decree,  of  the  t/i?'ee  and  a  half  times  of  the 
Papal  Antichrist.  —  Of  course  they  might  be  calculated, 
yet  more  naturally,  from  Nebuchadnezzar's  own  accession 
and  invasion  of  Judah,  B.  C.  606.  Considering,  however, 
not  merely  the  long  and  intimate  connection  of  Babylon 
and  Assyria  (a  connection  recognized  alike  by  ancient  classic 

Lecture  on  the  connection  between  science  and  religion;  vol.  i.,  p.  354 
(3rd  Ed.). 

"It  is,  in  fact,"  Cuvier  says,  "  one  of  the  most  certain,  though  least 
expected,  results  of  sound  geological  pursuits,  that  the  last  revolution 
■which  disturbed  the  surface  of  the  globe  is  not  very  ancient."  And  in 
another  place  he  adds:  "I  think,  therefore,  with  jMM.  Deluc  and  Dolo- 
mieu,  that  if  there  be  anything  demonstrated  in  geology,  it  is  that  the 
surfice  of  our  globe  has  been  the  victim  of  a  great  and  sudden  revolution, 
of  wliich  the  date  cannot  go  back  much  further  than  five  or  six  thousand 
years."  (Discours,  pp.  139,  282.)  "And  allow  me  to  observe,"  adds 
Dr.  Wiseman, "  that  Cuvier  intimates,  with  sufficient  clearness,  that  in  his 
researches  he  has  not  allowed  himself  to  be  swayed  by  any  wish  to  vindi- 
cate the  Mosaic  history."  (lb.,  p.  352.) 

*  Dan.  iv.  — If  not  symbolic,  wherefore  the  so  expressly  noted  band  to 
the  tree's  stump  of  iron  and  brass  ?  The  figure  is  somewhat  otherwise 
applied  by  Cowj^er  to  the  wretchedness  and  ruined  hopes  of  a  prisoner  : 

" Like  the  visionary  emblem  seen 

By  him  of  Babylon,  life  stands  a  stump; 

And  fiUetted  about  ■with  hoops  of  brass 

Still  lives,  though  all  his  pleasant  boughs  are  gone." 

t  Jer.  50  :  17.  "  Israel  is  a  scattered  sheep;  the  lions  have  driven  him 
away  :  first  the  King  of  Assyria  hath  devoured  him;  last  this  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, King  of  Babylon,  hath  broken  his  bones." 


IN  THE  PROPUETIC  CALENDAR.         117 

and  ancient  Christian  authors),*  but  yet  more  the  Assyrian 
character  of  Daniers  symbol  of  the  whigcd  lion,  f  designa- 
tive  of  the  first  of  the  four  great  empires,  that  is,  the  Baby- 
lonish, it  seems  to  me  that  the  earlier  Assyrian  reference 
and  date  are  admissible.  J 

*  So  e.  g.  Tticitiii!,  Hist.  V.  8.  —  *' Dum  jfssi/rios  penes,  Medosque  et 
Persas,  oriens  fuit/'     Again,  the  Christijin  expositor  Thcodorct  on  Dan. 
ii.  sa3-s :    "  The  licad  of  gold  is  not  Nebuchadnezzar  himself,  but  the 
entire  kingdom  of  the  Jlssyrians  or  Babylonians." 
/     t  See  Layard's  engraving. 

X  Mr.  Bickersteth  and  Mr.  Birks  have  supposed  another  prophetic 
synclironism  with  tlic  epoch  of  consummation  above  specified  to  arise  out 
of  the  yiuivt,;  i,vy.  toud  fii  in  Apoc.  10:  7;  as  if  meaning,  ".i  year  shall 
not  elapse  ere  the  consummation."  For  they  explain  this  as  a  prophetic 
year,  whether  of  3(30  or  3Go  natural  years.  Admitting  which,  the  term- 
ination of  this  period  also  will  fall  on  our  chronological  line  yet  but  a 
little  dist4ince  further,  and  there  mark  the  bounding  limit, —  the  ne  plus  ul- 
tra, if  I  maj'  sti  call  it,  of  our  present  mundane  chronology, —  at  A.  D.  1877 
or  1882.  TheAngel's  use  of  the  word,  however,  /ooioc,  not  y.aiouc,  seems 
to  nie  fatal  to  it :  this  latter  being  the  word  always  used  in  the  Septuagint 
and  Apocalypse  of  the  mystical  periods  of  the  time,  times,  and  half  a 
time.     See  my  Vol.  ii.,  p.  l'2o. 

The  want  of  the  article  is  the  point  most  in  fovor  of  Mr.  Birk's  view  : 
but  the  passage  is  simply  and  satisfactorily  explainable,  as  I  liave  shown, 
otherwise.  It  is  curious  that  on  one  occasion,  according  to  his  Table  Talk, 
Luther  expressed  an  opinion  that  perhaps  the  world  might  last  yet  300 
j-ears  more,  before  the  consummation.  But  this,  however,  was  contrary 
alike  to  his  earlier  anticipations  and  latest  aspirations.  See  Vol.  ii.,  p. 
132—130. 

I  cannot  but  suspect  wc  have  a  truer  ne  plus  ultra  in  our  Lord's  cele- 
brated saying,  "  Tliis  generation  shall  not  pass  away  till  all  be  fulfilled," 
&c.,  Luke  21  :  32  ;  —  by  supposing  the  saying  to  have  a  double  reference  : 
1st,  to  the  fulfilment  of  the  judgments  on  Jerusalem,  ere  the  generation 
then  alive  should  have  past  away;  2nd,  to  the  final  judgment  of  the  con- 
summation, Qra  the  generation  should  have  wholly  past  away, //irt<  icit- 
nessed  the  sii/ns  in  the  sun  and  moon,  &c.  (verse  23,  &c.),  which  signs  I 
suppose  to  have  begun  at  the  French  Revolution.  See  my  Vol.  iii.,  p.  301, 
Note  :   also  my  paper  in  the  Investigator,  Vol.  iv.,  p.  341. 

It  is  to  be  oijserved  that  the  word  «' n,,  this,  in  the  clause  1,  yti *«  m'rj;, 
needs  not  necessarily  to  be  aspirated  :  as  there  were  no  aspirates  in  the 
uncial  cliaractcrs  of  tlie  older  MSS.  And  if  without  the  aspirate,  thcu 
ai'ii;  would  mean //u(/,  —  "that  generation  shall  not  have  passed  awaj', 
&c.;"  with  ivforence  distinctly  to  the  generation  that  was  alive  at  the 
time  of  the  signs  in  the  sun  and  moon,  &c.,  appearing.  But  the  view  I 
advocate  <locs  not  depend  on  the  absence  of  the  aspirate.  Because  our 
Lord  might  mean  by  " //lis  generation,"  the  generation  of  the  time  he 
was  then  speaking  of  :  just  as  in  Luke  17  :  34,  where,  speaking  of  the 
time  of  his  second  coming,  he  says  Tunyi  /«  nxn,  "  On  this  night  shall 
two  be  in  one  bed;  one  shall  be  taken,"  kc:  meaning  thereby  the  night 
of  his  coming;  and  so  rendered  in  our  English  version,  "In  that  night." 

I  had  mentioned,  though  quite  doubtfully,  in  my  former  editions,  Mr. 
Habershou's  idea  that  the  hour,  day,  month  and  year,  of  the  Turkisli 


118  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION. 

In  fine,  notwithstanding,  what  is  fully  allowed,  the  doubt- 
fulness of  some  of  these  periods,  and  their  other  possible 
epochs  of  commencement,  yet  the  fact  is  clear  that,  con- 
strued consistently  on  the  year-daij  system,  they  have  all 
a  probable  ending  somewhere  within  the  extreme  dates, 
distant  only  75  years  apart,  of  A.  D.  1790  and  1865. 
In  regard  of  the  17  long  centuries  preceding,  that  inter- 
vene between  the  Apocalyptic  Revelation  and  French  Revo- 
lution, there  is  none  within  which  they  can,  with  at  all  the 
same  probability,  be  similarly  made  to  converge.  And  I^ 
must  say  that  the  fact  of  tlieir  thus  travelling,  as  they  are 
alike  found  to  do,  to  a  close  within  our  present  era,  from 
their  several  sources  more  or  less  remote  in  the  depth  of 
antecedent  ages,  much  impresses  my  own  mind,  as  con- 
firmatory of  the  conclusion  which  was  primarily  deduced  by 
me  from  the  evidence  simply  of  the  Apocalyptic  prophecy. 
Like  as  the  convergency  of  many  lines  of  road  to  a  geo- 
graphical centre  indicates  that  centre  to  be  the  place  of  some 
important  and  mighty  city,  so  the  convergency  of  these 
several  chronological  lines  to  an  ending  within  the  present 
century,  now  above  one  half  run  out,*  seems  to  mark  this 
century  as  an  important  era  of  crisis,  big  with  momentous 
issues  as  to  the  destinies  of  the  world,  f 

To  all  which  chronological  evidence  there  needs  to  be 
added,  in  corroboration  and  confirmation,  that  of  the  many 
and  extraordinary  signs  of  the  times :  signs  which  have 
drawn  attention,  not  from  prophetic  students  only,  but  from 
the  man  of  the  world,  the  philosopher,  the  statesman ;  and 
made  not  a  few  even  of  the  irreligious  and  unthinking  to 
pause  and  reflect.  —  Thus  there  is,  1st,  the  drying  up,  still 
ever  going  forward,  of  the  Turkman  Mahommedan  power, 

Euphratean  horsemen  miglit  possibly  be  meant  to  signify  the  time  during 
xchich  the  Turks  should  hold  Constantinople,  as  well  as  the  time  wiihln 
which  they  should  take  it :  it  being  stated  as  my  own  persuasion  that  the 
time  within  which  was  in  any  case  the  main  point  signified.  Had  Mr. 
Habershon's  idea  been  correct,  the  Tui-kish  empire  would  have  fallen  in 
1840.     But  the  event  has  disproved  it. 

Perhaps  the  two  religious  (lelusions  of  Popery  and  jMahommedism,  each 
symbolized  as  originating  from//ic  abyss,  are  not  to  be  finally  ended  till  the 
time  answering  to  the  Devil's  being  sealed  up  in  the  abyss,  so  as  to  delude 
the  nations  no  more. 

*  I  mean  as  reckoned  from  1790. 

t  See  the  Diagram.     The  more  dubious  lino,  in  my  judgment,  is  dotted. 


D  I  Art  RAM.  119 

BHOWINQ   THE  COXVERGEXT   ENDINGS    OF   TUE   CHIEF   rROPIIETIC   PERIODS. 


^ 


120  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

or  mystic  flood  from  the  Euphrates  :  —  2,  the  interest  felt 
by  Protestant  Christians  for  the  conversion  and  restoration 
of  Israel ;  an  interest  unknown  for  eighteen. centuries,  but 
now  strong,  fervent,  prayerful,  extending  even  to  royalty 
itself,  and  answering  precisely  to  that  memorable  prediction 
of  the  Psalmist,  "  Thou  shalt  arise  and  have  mercy  upon 
Zion,  for  the  time  to  favor  her,  yea,  the  set  time  is  come ;  for 
thy  servants  think  upon  her  stones,  and  it  piticth  them  to 
see  her  in  the  dust :  "* —  3,  the  universal  prcaduiuj  of  the 
Gospel  over  the  world  :  that  sign  of  whicli  Augustine  said, 
that  could  we  but  see  it,  we  might  indeed  think  the  time 
of  the  consummation  at  hand  :  f — 4,  the  marked  political 
asceiidency  before  the  whole  world,  alike  Heathen,  Mahom- 
medan,  and  Jewish,  of  the  chief  nations  of  the  old  Roman 
earth,  that  is,  professing  Christendom,  and  ever  increasing 
political,  scientific  and  commercial  intercourse,  ^'  many 
running  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  being  increased  ;  "  J 
such  as  to  force  the  eyes  of  all  nations  on  this  same  Roman 
earth,  as  (conjointly  at  least  with  the  mighty  offshoot  from 
England  of  the  American  United  States)  the  central  focus 
alike  of  commerce,  science,  and  political  power  :  —  5,  and 
connectedly,  the  outgoing  thence  almost  as  universally 
among  them  of  relifjious  Christian  and  AnticJiristian  mis- 
sions, under  the  protection  and  auspices  respectively  of  the 
chief  Roman  Catholic  and  Protestant  European  powers; 
the  Romish  and  Antichristian  full  of  zeal  and  bitterness, 
and  with  conflict  already  so  begun  against  Protestant  evan- 

*  Psalm  102  :  13, 14. —  The  general  political  emancipation  of  the  Jews  is 
a  sign  too  very  observable.  As  the  Jews  in  Pagan  times  had  to  pay 
tribute  to  Rome's  Prnjan  wonsliip,  so  too,  subsequently,  to  Rome's  Pa-pal 
idolatrous  worship.  (Sec  my  Vol.  i.,  p.  54,  Note  ■*.)  In  1848  the  Marquis 
Azeglio  published  an  interesting  Memoir  on  the  oppression  of  the  Jews  at 
Rome  and  in  Italy.  And  in  that  same  year  the  tax  was  abolished  ;  and 
tlie  Pope  himself  attended  to  see  the  gate  of  the  Ghetto,  or  quarter  of 
Jewish  insulation,  broken  down  e.v&n  in  Rome. 

t  Epistle  to  Hesychius,  numbered  197  in  the  late  Paris  Benedictine 
Edition,  Tom.  ii.,  col.  1107  :  "  Opportunitas  vero  illius  temporis  (sc.  finis 
hujus  sseculi  et  adventiis  Domini)  non  erit  antequam  proedicctur  Evange- 
lium  in  universe  orbe  in  testimonium  omnibus  gentibus.  Apertissima 
enim  de  hac  re  legitur  sententia  Salvatoris,  Matt.  24  :  14.  .  .  .  Unde  si 
jam  nobis  certissime  nuntiatum  fuisset  in  omnibus  gentibus  Euangelium 
praedicari,  nee  sic  possemus  dicere  quantum  temporis  remaneret  usque  ad 
finem  ;  sed  magis  maz/istjue  propinquare  inerito  discercinus." 

t  Dan.  12:  12.  —  How  extraordinary  in  this  respect  are  the  effects, 
even  already,  of  the  late  yolden  discoveries  in  California  ! 


IN  THE  PROPUETIC  CALENDAR.         121 

gdlc  misslojis  and  Bible-circulation,  as  to  havo  forced 
the  attention  of  Jews.  Heathens,  and  Mahommcdans,  to  the 
grand  subject  of  the  Lord's  controversy  with  Koman  Anti- 
Christendom,  and  to  be  preparing  them  (almost  as  by  prov- 
idential voice)*  for  being  intelligent  spectators  of  its  tre- 
mendous issue: — and  this  the  more,  6,  because  of  yet 
other  two  spirits  of  religious  delusion  having  also  gone  forth 
of  late  to  deceive  men,  in  power  and  influence  quite  ex- 
traordinary; which,  conjunctively  with  the  one  before  men- 
tioned, answer  well,  in  respect  both  of  character  and  of 
time,  to  the  three  spirits  like  frogs  from  out  of  the  mouths 
of  Dragon,  Beast,  and  False  Prophet  (or  spirits  of  infidelity, 
popery,  and  priestcraft),  that,  after  the  drying  up  had  begun 
of  the  Euphratean  waters,  Avere  to  gather  the  powers  of  the 
earth  together  to  the  war  of  the  great  day  of  God  Al- 
mighty ;t  all  the  great  hostile  dramatis  pcrsoncno^  the  his- 
tory of  Christendom  thus  coming  on  the  stage  before  the 
drama's  consummation.  7,  the  revolutionary  internal 
hearings  of  the  European  nations,  alike  with  infidel  and 
democratic  agitation,  accordantly  with  Christ's  and  the 
apostle's  descriptions  of  the  latter  days ;  and  their  prepa- 
ration for  deadly  conflict,  with  new  and  increased  powers  of 
destruction,  of  which  the  extraordinary  outbreaks  of  1848, 
in  half  the  countries  of  Western  Europe,  may  have  been 
but  the  prclibation.  —  Such,  I  say,  is  the  combination  of 
siijiis  of  the  times  now  visible;  signs  predicted  more  or  less 
clearly  in  Scripture  prophecy,  as  signs  which  were  to  pre- 
cede the  end.  And,  considering  that  they  all  point  to  the 
quickly-coming  future  as  the  very  crisis  of  consummation,  J 

♦  "  lie  shall  call  to  the  heavens  from  above,  and  to  the  earth,  that  he 
may  judge  his  people.  ...  lie  hath  called  the  earth  from  the  rising  of  the 
Bun  unto  the  going  down  thereof."  —  Psalm  60  :  1,  4. 

t  Sec  my  Part  v.,  ch.  0. 

X  So,  for  example,  Schlegel  in  his  Philosophy  of  History,  Lect.  xviii.  : 
"  Never  was  there  a  period  that  pointed  so  strongly,  so  clearly,  so  gene- 
rally towards  the  future,  as  our  own,"  &c.  Robertson's  translation.  Vol. 
ii.,  p.  319. 

And  having  given  this  from  a  German,  let  me  add  the  opinions  of  two 
learneil  professors  from  the  other  side  of  the  .\tlantic;  writers  of  ditferent 
prophetic  sentimcnta  from  each  other  and  from  myself.  Says  Professor 
.BwsA  (Millenninm,  p.  88):  "We  are  now  actually  arrived  at  the  very 
borders  of  that  period  which  is  to  be  signalized  by  the  winding  up  of  the 
grand  despotic  (?)  drama  that  has  been  for  ages  enacting  in  transatlantic 
Christendom." — And  Professor  Robinson :  "  Befoi'e  auotber  half-century 


122  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

concurrently  >Yith  the  other  various  evidence  that  has  hcen 
detailed  before  (and  more  might  yet  be  added),*  is  it  likely 
that  "\ve  can  be  mistaken  in  so  construing  thcni  ?  Does 
there  not  seem  to  be  in  them  before  our  eyes  that  buddinc/ 
of  the  Jig-ti-ee  vihich.  our  Lord  spoke  of ;  f   and  respecting 

Bhall  have  rolled  away,  in  the  prov)<lence  of  God,  there  will  be  seen  revo- 
lutions in  the  oriental  mind,  and  tlic  oriental  world,  of  wliioli  no  one  now 
has  even  a  foreboding.  The  time  is  short  :  the  crisis  ruslies  on.  Let  us 
awake  and  be  prepared  !  "  —  Biblioth.  Sacra,  ii.,  252. 

*  I  must  quote  a  remarkable  passage  to  this  cftcct  from  the  late  lamented 
Dr.  Arnohrs  Lectures  on  Modern  Iiistor3',  p.  38. 

"  Modern  history  appears  to  be  not  only  a  step  in  advance  of  ancient 
history,  but  the  last  step:  it  appears  to  bear  marks  of  the  fulness  of  time, 
as  if  there  would  be  no  future  history  beyond  it.  For  the  last  eighteen 
hundred  years  Greece  has  fed  tlie  human  intellect :  Rome,  taught  by 
Greece,  and  improving  upon  her  teacher,  lias  been  the  source  of  law  and 
government  and  social  civilization  :  and,  what  neither  Greece  nor  Rome 
could  furnish,  the  perfection  of  moral  and  spiritual  truth,  has  been  given 
by  {'hristianity.  The  changes  wliich  have  been  wrought  have  arisen  out 
of  the  reception  of  these  elements  by  new  races  ;  —  races  endowed  with 
sucli  force  of  cliaracter,  that  what  was  old  in  itself,  wlien  exhibited  in 
them,  seems  to  become  something  new.  But  races  so  gifted  are,  and  liave 
been  from  the  beginning  of  the  world,  few  in  number  :  the  mass  of  man- 
kind have  no  sucli  power.  .  .  .  Now,  looking  anxiously  round  the  world  for 
any  new  races,  whicli  may  receive  tlie  seed  (so  to  speak)  of  our  present 
historj'^  into  a  kindly  yet  vigorous  soil,  and  may  reproduce  it,  the  same 
and  yet  new,  for  a  future  period,  we  know  not  wJiere  such  are  to  be  found. 
Some  appear  exhausted,  others  incapable  ;  and  yet  the  surface  of  the 
■whole  globe  is  known  to  us.  .  .  .  Everywliere  the  search  lias  been  made, 
and  the  report  has  been  received.  AVe  liave  the  full  amount  of  earth's 
resources  before  us,  and  they  seem  inadequate  to  supply  life  for  a  third 
period  of  human  history. 

' '  I  am  well  aware  that  to  state  this  as  a  matter  of  positive  belief  would 
be  the  extreme  of  presumption.  There  may  be  nations  reserved  hereafter 
for  great  purposes  of  God's  providence,  wliose  fitness  for  tlieir  appointed 
work  will  not  betray  itself  till  the  work  and  the  time  for  doing  it  be  come. 
....  But,  without  any  presumptuous  confidence,  if  there  be  any  signs, 
however  uncertain,  that  we  are  living  in  the  latest  period  of  the  world's 
history,  that  no  other  races  remain  behind  to  perform  what  we  have 
neglected,  or  to  restore  what  we  have  ruined,  theu  indeed  the  interest  of 
modern  history  does  become  intense." 

t  It  may  be  interesting  to  compare  Tertullian's  view  of  the  signs  that 
wci-e  to  precede  and  loreshow  the  consummation,  and  coming  of  the  "  diem 
Domini  magnum,  diem  irtB  et  retributionis,  diem  ultimum  et  occultum, 
nee  ulli  prtetei-quam  Patri  notum,  et  tamen  signis  atque  portentis,  ct 
concussionibus  elementorum,  et  conflictationibus  natiouum  prtenotatum." 
(Be  Resur.  Carn.  22.)  Then  he  proceeds  to  the  unrolling  of  the  prophe- 
cies, in  order  to  fix  the  era,  as  follows  : 

1st,  he  notes  the  prophecy  in  Matt,  xxiv.,  about  Jerusalem  being  trodden 
of  the  Gentiles,  till  the  times  of  the  Gentiles  were  fulfilled:  ("donee 
adimpleantur  tempora  natiouum,  allegandaruni  scilicet  a  Deo,  et  congre- 
gandarum  cum  reliquiis  Israelis:  ")  ou  which  he  adds,  that  both  Joel 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         123 

-which  he  said  that  whosoever  might  see  was  to  mark  them, 
and  know  therefrom  that  summer  would  be  then  nigh  at 
hand  ?  * 

5  2.    THE    APPLICATION. 

But  if  it  be  so,  then  the  solemn  question  suggests  itself, 
In  what  spirit  and  manner  may  we  best  prepare  to  meet 
this  coming  future  ?  The  thought  of  the  nearness  of  the 
consummation  is  of  itself  unspeakably  awakening  and 
solemn ;  and  the  rather  when  we  consider  further  that 
there  is  to  be  expected  antecedently  a  time  of  sifting  and 
trial,  such  as  perhaps  has  never  yet  been  experienced.  For 
our  Christian  poet's  exquisite  language  f  does  by  no  means 

ami  Daniel,  and  tlie  wlmle  Council  of  the  Prophets,  predict  signs  in  the 
suu,  moon,  and  stars,  and  on  earth  the  straitening  of  the  nations,  and 
powers  of  heaven  being  sliaken  ;  and  that  then  the  Sou  of  man  is  to  be 
seen  coming  in  the  clouds  with  power  and  great  glory  :  so  that  these 
signs,  like  the  sign  of  the  budding  lig-trcc,  siiould  make  Christians  lift  up 
their  heiuls,  as  knowing  that  Christ's  coming  and  the  time  of  the  resur- 
rection arc  at  hand. 

L'ndlj-,  he  notes  St.  Paul's  prophecy  in  2  Thess.  ii.,  of  the  apostasy  and 
the  Mm  of  Sin,  or  .\nticlirist  ;  who  is  to  be  revealed,  and  reign,  and 
then  to  be  destroyed  by  the  briglitness  of  Clirist's  coming. 

od,  comes  the  prophecy  connected  with  the  vision  of  the  souls  under  the 
nltar  in  Apoc.  vi.;  in  a  passage  already  ([uoted  from  Tertullian  in  my  Vol. 
!.,  p.  'J17  :  —  whence  he  inferred  tl\at  /irs<  Antidirisifc  was  to  appear,  and 
kill  fresli  martyrs  for  Christ  ;  Ikcn  the  vials  of  (.iod's  wi-ath  to  be  poured 
out  on  the  apostate  harlot-city  ;  then  the  devil  to  lie  bound,  and  the  souls 
of  the  martyrs  to  reign  with  Christ  ;  and  then,  afterwards,  the  general 
resurrection  to  take  place. 

*  Tliey  who  are  fond  of  quoting  Christ's  siying  to  tlie  discipJcs  then 
alive,  "  It  is  not  for  you  to  know  tlie  times  and  the  seasons,"  and  again, 
"  That  hour  and  day  knoweth  no  man,"  as  if  a  prohibition  of  all  calcu- 
lation of  proplietic  times  before  their  fulfilment,  siiould  remember  this 
saying  of  Christ  also,  intended  specially  for  such  of  his  servants  as  might 
be  living  near  the  time  of  the  end.  We  are  meant,  it  would  seem,  to 
know  the  nearness  of  the  advent,  when  at  hand,  though  not  the  exact 
time  ;  and  if  negligent  in  marking  the  signs  given,  may  subject  oui'selvcs 
justly  to  the  same  rebuke  as  the  Pliarisees  and  Sadducees  of  old,  "  Are  ye 
not  able  to  discern  the  signs  of  the  times?"  (JIatt.  IC) :  3.)  Is  not 
Daniel  lui  example  for  imitation  on  this  point?     Dan.  'J  :  '2. 

t  "The  groans  of  Nature  in  this  nether  world, 
Whicli  heaven  has  heard  for  ages,  have  an  end. 
Foretold  by  prophets,  and  by  poets  sung. 
The  time  of  rest,  the  promised  sahhatk  comes. 
Six  thousand  years  of  sorrow  have  well-nigh 
Fulfilled  their  tardy  and  disastrous  course 


124  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 


adequately  express  the  probable  severity  of  the  coming 
crisis.  Ere  the  sabbatism  of  the  saints  begins,  something 
much  more  is  to  be  looked  for  than  the  mere  gusty  closing 
l)lasts  of  a  long  tempest,  or  billowy  heavings  of  the  sea 
before  a  calm,  as  "  it  works  itself  to  rest."  The  final  con- 
flict between  Christ's  true  Church  and  Antichrist,  and  their 
respective  cliicfs  and  supporters,  both  visible  and  invisible, 
seems  set  forth  in  prophecy  as  most  severe.  As  a  nation,  as  a 
church,  as  individuals,  how^  may  we  best  prepare  to  meet  it? 

And  here  it  is  that  the  moral  of  the  Apocalyptic  pro- 
phecy, its  inoral  philosopliy  of  the  liistory  of  Christen- 
dom, if  I  may  so  call  it,  becomes  unspeakably  valuable.  We 
have  elsewhere  had  the  philosophy  of  the  same  history  traced 
by  hnman  pens ;  and  lessons  at  the  same  time  drawn  from 
it  in  the  way  of  instruction  and  direction  for  the  future  :  for 
example,  in  a  work  by  the  late  celebrated  Frederic  Von 
ScJdegel,  professedly  on  the  subject ;  *  a  writer  of  no  com- 
mon eloquence,  or  common  reputation.  But  if  we  compare 
the  two  outlines  of  historic  philosophy  together,  the  human 
and  the  divine,  what  a  contrast  will  appear ;  and  how  true 
the  one  —  how'  erroneous  and  delusive  the  other  ! 

In  his  general  abstract  notions,  indeed,  of  the  philosophy 
of  history,  and  its  objects,  Schlegel  has  much  that  is  admi- 
rable. He  lays  it  dow'n  that,  as  the  highest  object  of  pld- 
losophy  is  the  restoration  of  God's  image  in  man,  so  the 
great  object  of  the  philosophy  of  history  must  be  to  trace 
histovically  the  progress  of  this  restoration ;  f  that  it  is 
God's  object  and  intention,  through  that  all  ridin(j  Provi- 
dence Avhich  regulates  the  whole  course  of  human  destiny,  J 

Over  a  sinful  world  ;  find  what  remains 
Of  this  tempestuous  state  of  human  things 
Is  merely  as  the  working  of  a  sea 
Before  a  calm,  that  rocks  itself  to  rest." 

Winter  Walk  at  JVoon. 

*  My  reference  is,  as  before,  to  the  English  Translation  by  Schlegel's 
devoted  admirer,  J.  B.  Robertson,  Esq.  The  Lectures  which  make  up 
tliis  work  on  the  "  Philosophy  of  History  "  were  delivered  at  Vienna,  in 
the  year  IS'JS,  the  year  before  his  deatli.  —  I  sliall  freely  make  extracts 
in  the  Notes.  It  will  familiarize  the  reader  with  a  new  point  of  view  in 
which  to  consider  the  Apocalypse. 

t  Preface,  ad  init. 

t  Lect.  XV.;  Vol.  ii.,  pp.  lOG,  108.  "  Without  the  idea  of  a  Godhead 
rcgvxlating  the  course  of  human  destiny,"  —  siicli  isliis  eloquent  language, 
—  "  of  an  all-ruling  Providence,  and  the  saving  and  redeeming  ijower  of 


IN    Tllli    PROPHETIC    CALENDAR.  125 

ultimately  to  accomplish  it ;  that  Christianity,  his  own 
heaven-sent  religion,  is  the  regenerating  principle,  whence 
whatever  may  already  have  been  accomplished  has  pro- 
ceeded, and  whence  alone  man's  final  and  perfect  regenera- 
tion is  to  arise  ;  *  th;it  the  hindrances  and  obstructions  in 
the  way  of  its  accomplishment  have  arisen  from  the  fear- 
fully powerful,  though  most  mysterious,  influence  in  the 
world  of  the  Spirif  of  cvif,  alike  Gods  enemy  and  man's, 
and  man's  f  endowment  with  free  irlll,  to  choose,  as  he  may 
please,  the  guidance  of  the  one   Spirit  or  the  other :  %  — 

God,  the  histoiy  of  the  world  wouM  be  a  labyrinth  without  an  outlet,  a 
confined  pile  of  apes  burieil  upon  ages,  a  mighty  tragedy,  without  a  right 
beginning,  or  a  projior  ending."  And  he  adds  tiiat  this  is  the  melancholy 
inijiression  produced  on  the  mind  by  several  of  the  great  ancient  his- 
torians ;  particularly  the  profoundest  of  them  all,  Tucilus. 

*  Lect.  X.;  Vol.  ii.,  9.  Speaking  of  Christ's  divine  mission  for  the 
re<lomption  of  the  world,  he  says  :  "  If  we  once  remove  this  divine  key- 
stone in  the  arch  of  universal  historj-,  the  whole  fibric  of  the  world's 
history  falls  to  ruin  ;  for  its  only  foundation  is  this  new  manifestation  of 
God's  power  in  the  crisis  of  time.  .  .  .  Without  faith  in  the  truth  of 
Christianity,  the  world's  history  would  be  an  insoluble  enigma  ;  "  &c. 
And  again,  pp.  4,  -5  :  "  From  its  very  origin,  and  still  more  in  its  prog- 
ress, it  entirely  renovated  the  face  of  the  world  :  "  —  "  It  has  shone  ever 
brighter  with  the  progress  of  ages  ;  and  has  changed  and  regenerated  not 
only  government  and  science,  but  the  whole  system  of  human  life."  — 
This  statement,  however,  is  much  modified  afterwards  as  to  the  past.  So  p. 
88,  after  saying  that  at  the  Constantinian  revolution  Christianity  "  7ni!/ht 
have  become  n  real  regeneration  of  tiie  Roman  state,"  he  adds  that  "  the 
old  Roman  maxims  of  state-policy,"  kc,  continuing  prevalent,  prevented 
its  completion  ;  — and  again,  p.  5-5,  "  the  Romans,  whose  polity  and  pub- 
lic life  Christianity  itself  was  unable  totally  to  regenerate." 

t  Schlegel  is  very  strong  in  his  statements  on  this  point.  So  Lect.  xv. 
p.  I'J'J  :  "That  man  only  who  recognizes  the  whole  magnitude  of  the 
power  permitted  to  the  wicked  principle,  according  to  the  inscrutable 
decrees  of  God,  from  the  curse  of  Cain,  and  the  sign  of  that  curse  in  its 
unimpeded  transmission  through  all  the  .  .  false  religions  of  heathenism, 
—  all  the  ages  of  extreme  moral  corruption,  and  eternally  repeated  and 
ever  increasing  crime,  .  .  is  alone  capable  of  understanding  the  great 
phenomena  of  universal  history,  iu  their  often  strange  and  dark  com- 
plexity." 

t  This  is  Schlegel's  Hiinl  principle  (the  other  two  being  God's  all- 
ruliiitj  and  rcilccming  provulcnce,  and  the  Kvil  SpirWs  power  of  tempt- 
till)  io  evil),  of  which  the  recognition  is  essential  to  the  philosophy  of 
history,  ii.,  800.  lie  says,  p.  1U7  :  "  Without  this  freedom  of  choice  in 
man, .  .  this  faculty  of  determining  between  the  divine  impulse  and  the 
suggestions  of  tlic  Spirit  of  Evil,  thei'c  would  be  no  history ;  and  without 
a  faith  in  such  principle  there  could  be  no  philosophy  of  hif^tory." 

At  p.  247,  Vol.  i.,  after  noticing  Condorcet's  theory  of  the  endless  per- 
fectibility of  man,  as  the  lil/cralifsjn  of  historic  philosophy,  he  well  adds, 
"  But  man's  corruptibiliiy  is  as  great  aa  his  perfectibility." 
11* 


126  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

further,  that  it  belongs  to  the  province  of  the  philosophy 
of  history  to  mark  God's  wrathful  judgments  on  the  world, 
■when  thus  led  astray  from  Him ;  *  and  to  mark  also  the  in- 
terpositions and  proceedings  of  Divine  Providence  (espe- 
cially as  illustrated  from  time  to  time  in  the  rise  and  con- 
duct of  any  remarkable  particular  nations  or  individuals),! 
with  a  view  to  the  fulfilment  of  its  designs,  whether  of 
judgment  or  of  mercy.  —  Such,  I  say,  is  Schlegel's  gener- 
ally J  just  idea  of  the  Philosophy  of  History;  and  the 
reader  needs  but  to  recall  what  has  gone  before  in  this  Com- 
mentary, or  to  glance  at  the  illustrative  Chart  prefixed  to 
it,  in  order  to  be  convinced  how  eminently,  on  such  an  idea 
of  it,  there  attaches  the  highest  kind  of  philosophic  cliar- 
acter  to  the  historic  prefigurations  of  the  Apocalypse.^J-  It 
is  in  the  application  of  the  principle  that  the  marked  con- 
trast appears  between  these  and  Schlegel's  sketches  :  nor,  I 
think,  can  I  better  place  the  moral  lessons  of  this  holy  book 
in  relief  and  distinctness  before  the  reader,  than  by  setting 
forth  its  moral  philosophy  of  history,  somewhat  fully,  in 
direct  contrast  with  the  other. 

The  German  philosopher^  then,  agreeably  with  his  reli- 
gious creed,  ||  directs  himself  by  the  Romish  standard  in 
his  judgment  of  things  that  concern  religion  and  the  church. 
After  the  first  four  centuries,  notable  for  the  diff"usion  and 
final  triumph  of  Christianity  over  Paganism  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  he  traces  the  church  visible  and  established  (al- 

*  "  This  idea  of  divine  justice,  and  of  God's  judgments  on  the  ■world, 
exemplified  in  history,  belongs  undoubtedly  to  the  province  of  historical 
philosophy."     Lect.  x.,  Vol.  ii.,  p.  7. 

t  Ibid.  p.  5. 

X  See  p.  255  on  the  exception. 

§  In  order  to  a  right  view  on  these  points,  there  is  needed,  of  course, 
and  consequently  required  by  the  philosophy  of  history,  a  distinct  setting 
forth  of  ■what  Schlegel  calls  (ii.  10-1)  "  the  critical  points  in  the  progress 
of  human  society."  Very  much  the  same  ■with  -what  I  have  stated  in  my 
Introduction,  Vol.  i.,  p.  105,  as  ■what  might  be  expected  in  a  divine 
prophecy  of  the  future,  and  -what  -would  be  found  in  the  Apocalypse. 
Compare  my  review  of  evidence,  pp.  216 — 224  supra. 

II  Schlegel  was  by  birth  a  Protestant.  But  in  his  thirty-third  year,  A.  D. 
1805,  he  renounced  Protestantism,  and  embraced  the  Romish  faith.  "  It 
■was  in  the  venei-able  minster  at  Cologne,"  says  his  translator,  "  that  there 
was  solemnized  in  the  person  of  this  illustrious  man  the  alliance  between 
the  ancient  faith  and  modern  science  of  Germany."  Memoir,  p.  xvi.—  It 
is  to  be  remembered  that  German  Protestantism  was  then  scarce  anything 
but  German  JVeology. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAK.         127 

ready  in  the  West,  in  respect  of  its  acknowledged  head.,  a 
Romhh  Church)  throu2;li  the /«?//•  centuries  next  following, 
of  '*a  chaotic  intermediate  state"  between  ancient  and 
modern  history,*  as  if  still  Chrisfs  true  church,  the  up- 
holder and  preserver  of  the  Christian  religion,  as  well  as 
civilizer  of  the  barbarous  invading  Germanic  nations:  —  then 
the  next  //ucc  centuries,  after  that  the  tempests  had  subsided, 
the  wild  waters  of  barbarian  inundation  begun  to  flow  oif, 
and  "  the  pure  firmament  of  Christian  faith"  shone  forth 
unclouded,!  from  Charlemagne  to  Gregory  VII.  and  the 
first  half  of  the  12th  century  inclusive  (a  period  constitut- 
ing the  earlier  half  of  the  middle  age),  as  "the  happiest 
era  and  golden  age  of  Christendom;  "  J  when  "  the  influ- 
ence of  religion  on  public  life  was  paramount;"  when  "  in 
Charles'  project  of  a  universal  empire  to  embrace  all  civil- 
ized nations,  the  foundation  stone  of  the  noble  fiibric  of 
modern  Christendom  was  laid,  and  all  the  elements  of  a 
truly  Christian  government  and  policy  ofiered  to  mankind;  "•§> 
when  "the  principles  which  animated  society  were  the  best 
and  noblest  and  soundest;  "||  when  the  church,  "  like  the  all- 
embracing  vault  of  heaven,"  H  with  its  pure  faith  sheltered 
and  shed  kindly  influence  on  all ;  and  the  Papal  power, 
founded  on  and  adapted  for  unity,  after  having  grown  up 
towards  the  end  of  this  era  to  unprecedented  greatness, 
used  this  great  power  only  so  as  to  preserve  Christianity 
from  being  lost  in  a  multitude  of  sects :  **  in  all  which  he 
thinks  to  mark  the  presence  and  operation  of  God's  aiii- 

*  ii.  117. 

t  Ibitl.  —  So  does  Schlcgel  iu  one  sentence  adopt  the  throe  Apocalyptic 
images  of  a  tempest  and  au  inundation,  wlicreby  to  sj'mbolize  the  great 
Germanic  irruption,  and  a  new  Christian  firmament,  in  place  of  the  old 
Pagan  political  firmament.  See  Apoc.  6:  14;  7:  1,  2 ;  12  :  15;  also 
Vol.  i.  p.  2o8,  anii  Vol.  iii.  Note  i,  p.  56. 

X  Lecture  xiii.,  p.  137.  lie  particularizes  the  reigns  of  Charlemagne, 
Alfred,  and  tlie  lirst  Saxon  kings  and  emperors  of  Oermanj',  "  as  exhibit- 
ing the  paramount  inllucuce  of  religion  on  public  life,  and  constituting  the 
hrtpi)iest  era,  the  truly  golden  period  of  our  annals  :  "  and  he  exemplifies, 
among  other  things,  in  the  earlier  "  spiritual  chivalry  of  the  Templars 
and  Kniglits  of  St.  .lohn,  consecrated  to  warfare  in  the  cause  of  God," 
!in<l  the  chivalry  of  the  first  crusades.  At  p.  17(>,  he  calls  the  earlier 
middle  age  "  thoroughly  Christian."  Gregory  the  Seventh,  too  (p.  14G), 
is  (lie  special  subject  of  his  eulogy. 

§  Ibid.  124,  125.  II  Ibid.  153. 

IT  Ibid.  115,  116.  **  Lect.  xiv.,  p.  183. 


128  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

mating  Spirit,  as  well  as  kindlij  providence.*  —  On  the 
other  hand,  he  traces  the  contemporary  operation  of  the  Evil 
Spirit  (the  ^'Spirit  of  iivie,'^  as  he  calls  it)  from  after 
the  era  of  the  overthrow  of  the  Pagan  Empire  that  it  had 
previously  ruled  in  and  animated,!  —  I  say,  he  traces 
the  Evil  Spirit's  operation  through  the  same  period  in  a 
beguiling  sectarian  spirit,  and  the  religious  schisms  of 
Christendom ;  including  not  alone  the  Arian  schism,  and 
the  Mahommedan  schism  (for  he  places  Mahommedanism  in 
the  same  category),  J  but  also  the  iconoclastic  proceedings 
of  certain  of  the  Greek  emperors  (proceedings  which  he 
lauds  Gregory  the  Second  for  resisting),  §  and  the  conse- 
quent schism  between  the  Eastern  and  Western  Churches. 
In  his  sketch  of  the  later  Juilf  of  the  middle  age,  reaching 
from  the  l'2th  century  to  the  Reformation,  he  admits  the 
general  religious  deterioration  of  Western  Christendom : 
particularizing  the  essentially  false  scholastic  philosophy 
then  in  vogue,  and  the  internal  feuds,  and  contests  between 
Church  and  State  :  ||  and  traces  the  kindly  operation  of  the 
Divine  Spirit  (•'  the  Paraclete  promised  to  the  Church  by 
its  divine  Founder"),^  whereby  Christianity  was  preserved, 
in  the  rise  and  institution  of  the  ecclesiastical  mendicant 
orders,  as   men  of  the   most  perfect  evangelical  humility, 

*  Ibid.  184. 

t  "  Christianity  is  tlie  emancipation  of  the  human  race  from  the  bond- 
age of  that  inimical  Spirit,  who  denies  God  ;  and,  as  far  as  in  him  lies, 
leads  all  created  intelligences  astray.  Hence  the  Scripture  styles  him 
'  the  Prince  of  this  world  : '  and  so  he  was  in  fact,  but  in  ancient  his- 
tory only ;  when  among  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  amid  the  pomp  of 
martial  gloi'y,  and  splendor  of  Pagan  life,  he  had  establislied  the  throne 
of  his  domination.  Since  this  divine  era  in  the  history  of  man, .  .  he  can 
no  longer  be  called  the  Prince  of  this  world  ;  but  the  Spirit  of  time:  " 
that  is,  as  regarding  "  temporal  interests,"  above  "  the  thoughts  and  faith 
of  eternity."    Lect.  xvi.  ad   fin.  ii.  333. 

t  Ibid.  p.  333. 

§  "  The  rigid  prohibition  of  the  religious  use  of  images  was  pi'oper  in 
those  cases  only  where  the  use  of  them  was  not  confined  to  a  mere  devo- 
tional respect,  but  was  likely  to  degenerate  into  a  real  adoration  and  idol- 
atry ;  and  where  a  strict  separation  from  Pagan  nations,  and  their  rites, 
Wiis  a  matter  of  primary  importance.  .  .  But  now  that  the  Mahommedan 
pro.scription  of  all  holy  emblems  and  images  of  devotion  arose  from  a 
decidedly  antichristian  spirit,  .  .  this  Byzantine  furious  war  against  im- 
ages, and  all  symbols  of  piety,  can  be  regarded  only  as  a  mad  contagion  of 
the  moral  disease  of  the  age."     Ibid.  lOG. 

II  Ibid.  173,  176,  333. 

IT  Ibid.  184. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         129 

poverty,  and  self-denial :  *  at  the  same  time  reprobating 
the  doctrines  of  the  then  popular  opposers  of  the  church, 
namely,  the  Waldenses,  Albigenses,  and  also  Wickliffe  and 
Huss  after  them,  as  fraught  with  the  germs  of  heresy.f  — 
So  arrived  at  the  Reformation^  he  speaks  of  it  as  mani- 
fested to  be  a  hiiinaii,  not  a  divine  reformation,  —  by  its 
claim  of  full  freedom  of  faith. J  its  rejection  of  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,*§»  its  destruction  of  the  dignity  of  the 
priesthood,  and  endangering  of  the  very  foundations  of 
religion,  through  a  denial  of  the  holy  sacramental  mys- 
teries, ||  its  adoption  finally  of  a  faith  of  mere  negation  (so 
he  designates  it),  and  severing  of  its  Protestant  constituents 
from  the  sacred  centre  of  faith  and  religion,  that  is,  from 
llome.U 

Such  is  Schlegel's  philosophic  vicAV  of  the  history  of 
Christendom  down  to  the  Reformation.  After  which  he 
notices  the  reli(jious  indifferent  ism  of  spirit,  and  false 
illuminism  of  the  seventeeinth  and  eighteenth  centuries, — 

*  Lect.  xiv.,  pp.  184,  186.  t  Ibid.  187. 

X  Lect.  xviii.,  p.  334. 

§  "  The  total  rejection  of  the  traditions  of  the  p.ost  (here  was  the  capi- 
tal vice  and  error  of  this  revolution)  rendoreil  this  evil  [the  unhappy  ex- 
isting confusion  of  doctrines]  incurable  ;  and  even  for  biblical  learning, 
the  true  Ivcy  of  interpretation,  which  sacred  tradition  alone  can  furnish, 
was  irretrievably  lost,"  Lect.  xv.,  p.  215.  —  So  also  at  p.  228,  iu  a  pas- 
sage quoted  Note  IT  below. 

II  "The  hostility  of  the  German  Reformers  to  the  church  was  of  a 
si)iritual  nature.  It  was  the  religious  dignity  of  the  priesthood  which 
was  more  particularly  the  object  of  their  destructive  eftbrts.  The  priest- 
hood sUvmls  or  falls  with  fiith  in  the  sacred  mysteries  :  "  and  (these  hav- 
ing been  by  the  Protestant  body^gencrally  rejected)  "  it  was  not  difficult 
to  foresee  that,  together  with  faith  in  them,  respect  for  the  clerg;^  must 
sooner  or  later  be  destroyed."  Moreover  "that  great  mystery  of 
religion  on  which  the  whole  dignity  of  the  Christian  priesthood  depends, 
forms  the  simple  but  very  deep  internal  keystone  of  .all  Christian  doctrine  : 
and  thus  the  rejection  or  even  infringement  of  this  dogma  shakes  the 
foundations  of  religion,  and  le.ads  to  its  total  overthrow."     Ibid.  p.  218. 

IT  "  Had  it  been,"  he  says,  p.  228,  a  "  divine  reformation,  it  would  at 
no  time,  and  under  no  condition,  have  severed  itself  from  the  sacred 
centre  and  venerable  basis  of  Christian  tradition  ;  in  order,  reckless  of 
all  legitimate  decisions,  preceding  sus  well  as  actual,  to  perpetuate  discord, 
and  seek  in  negation  itself  a  new  and  peculiar  basis  for  the  edifice  of 
schismatic  opinion." 

He  speaks  with  high  approval,  p.  222,  of  the  institution  of  the  Jesuits: 
as  a  religious  order  wholly  dependent  on  the  cliurcli  ;  and  so,  and  from 
their  opposition  to  Protestantism,  as  answering  to  ike  yrcut  want  of  the 
age. 


130  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

ascribing  them  very  much  to  the  influence  of  the  Protestant 
principle,* — until  the  tremendous  political  outbreak  of  this 
infidel  illuminism  in  the  French  Kevolution.  Then,  after 
a  notice  of  the  Revolution  and  its  twenty-five  years'  war 
"of  irreligion," — "a  convulsive  crisis  of  the  world  which 
has  cx'eated  a  mighty  chasm,  and  thrown  up  a  wall  of  sepa- 
ration between  the  present  age  and  the  eighteenth  century, "f 
—  he  speaks  of  the  late  progressing  revival  o^  Roman  Catlto- 
licis/n,  as  a  revival  oi'  /■cli(/ioi/,  more  especially  in  the  coun- 
tries of  France  and  Germany.  And  lie  finally  expresses 
his  hope  of  a  true  and  complete  regeneration  of  the  age, 
at  no  great  distance  of  time  (though  not  till  after  a  total 
temporary  triumph  of  some  antichristian  spirit  of  evil  |),  as 
the  fit  conclusion  to  the  philosophy  of  history :  *^ — its  essence 
to  consist  in  a  thorough  Christianization  alike  of  the  state 
and  of  science;  ||  — liiforni  to  be  somewhat  like  the  per- 
fecting of  the  noble  but  imperfect  Christian  Empire  of 
Charlemagne  ;  H  —  its  introduction  to  be  preceded  by  a  dis- 
play of  fearful  divine  judgments,**  and  indeed  attended  by 
Christ's  own  coming  and  intervention  :  ff —  and,  with  this 

*"  Those  negative  and  destructive  principles,  —  those  maxims  of 
liberalism  and  irreligion,  wliicli  were  almost  exclusively  prevalent  in 
European  literature  during  tlie  eighteenth  century;  — in  a  word,  Profexf- 
antisiii,  iu  the  comprehensive  signification  of  that  term."  Lcct.  xviii.,  p. 
285. —  So,  too,  p.  1^9-3;  tliough  he  there  allows  that  tlie  English  Protestant- 
ism of  philosophj'  is  to  be  distinguished  from  tlie  French  revolutionary 
atheism.  For  tliat  "  though,  by  its  opposition  to  all  spiritual  ideas,  it  is 
of  a  negative  character,  yet  most  of  its  partisans  contrive  to  malie  some 
sort  of  capitulation  with  divine  faith,  and  to  preserve  a  kind  of  belief  in 
moral  feeling."     So,  too,  p.  3o4.  t  ii-,  271. 

t  Lect.  XV.,  Vol.  ii.  p.  TJU. 

§  Lect.  xviii.,  p.  323. 

II  Ibid.  320,  322,  33G. 

IT  Tliis  is  spoken  of  at  p.  320  as  a  magnificent  ground-work  for  a  truly 
Christian  structure  of  government,  which  then  indeed  remained  un- 
finished, but  is  to  be  the  object  of  our  hope  for  the  future.  See  tlie  next 
Note. 

**  "  This  exalted  religious  hope,  —  this  high  historical  expectation,  — 
must  be  coupled  with  great  appreliension  as  to  the  full  display  of  divine 
juatice  in  the  world.  For  how  is  such  a  religious  regeneration  possible, 
until  ever}-  s])ocics,  form,  and  denomination  of  political  idolatry  be  .  .  en- 
tirelj'  extirpateil  from  the  earth?  "     pp.  318,  311). 

tt  "As  every  human  soul  is  conducted  to  the  realms  above  by  the  gentle 
hand  of  its  divine  guardian,  so  the  Saviour  himself  has  announced  to  all 
mankind,  in  many  prophetic  passages,  that  when  the  period  of  the  disso- 
lution of  the  world  sliall  approach,  he  himself  will  return  to  the  earth, 
will  renovate  the  face  of  all  things,  and  bring  them  to  a  close."  So  ii.,  20. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         131 

divine  reformation,  and  its  accompanying  complete  victory 
of  truth,  "that  Jiiimaii  reformation,  which  till  now  hath 
existed,  to  sink  to  the  ground,  and  disappear  from  the 
world."  * 

Now  turn  we  to  the  philosophy  of  the  same  history  of 
Christendom,  as  traced  out  to  the  evangelist  iSt.  John,  in 
the  divinely  pictured  visions  of  the  Apncahji>se :  and  oh  ! 
how  different  is  its  jiurport !  — a  difference  based  in  foct  on 
a  fundamentally  different  view  from  Schlegcls,  alike  as  to 
C7iris('s  true  rclifjion.  and  as  to  Christ's  true  rlnircli ! 
After  a  i-apid  prefiguration  in  its  six  first  picturings  of  the 
chief  eras  and  vicissitudes  of  the  Roman  Pagan  empire, 
thenceforward  successively  to  occur  (not  without  distinct 
notice  of  its  persecuting  cruelty,  and  the  Christian  martyr's 
fiiith  and  constancy),  even  until  its  total  overthrow  and  dis- 
solution before  the  power  of  Christianity, —  there  was  then 
next  presented  in  the  sealing  vision  a  ]>rimary  graphic 
sketch  of  the  Christian  body,  such  as  it  would  present  itself 
to  the  all-seeing  eye  of  God's  Spirit,  and  to  the  eye  too  of 
him  who  Avas  taught  of  the  Spirit,  after  the  great  revolution 
should  have  been  completed,  and  a  new  and  favoring  politi- 
cal heaven  overshadow  it.  And  what  the  nature  and  pur- 
port of  the  sketch?  That  of  tempests  of  judgment  im- 
pending; as  if  the  Christian  body  so  delivered,  so  exalted, 
and  so  extended,  was  verging  to  a])Ostasy.  such  as  to  call 
down  those  judgments  :  and,  connectedly,  that  of  an  election 
and  sealing  by  Christ  of  so  small  a  number  out  of  the  pro- 
fessing church,  or  mystic  Israel,  as  to  confirm  the  imin-es- 
sion  that  apostasy  was  seen  to  be  beginning  in  Christen- 
dom :  —  at  the  same  time  that  the  very  significant  figura- 
tions of  the  prophetic  sketch  with  reference  to  the  sealed 

—  Propliccy  shows,  lie  .-xilds,  that  luankiuil  had  "  to  traverse  many  cen- 
turies, before  the  promise  was  to  he  fuHilled,  the  final  and  universal  tri- 
umph of  Christianity  throughout  the  earth  to  be  accomplished,  and  all 
mankind  <j;atlicred  into  one  fold  and  under  one  shepherd  :"  so  showing  tluat 
it  is  tjic  rnrllily  renovation  of  all  things,  and  triumph  of  Christianity  on 
this  earthly  scene,  that  Sohlegcl  expected  Christ's  second  advent  to 
introduce. 

To  the  same  effect  is  the  heading  of  his  last  Lecture  (p.  300,  on  the 
"  Universal  Regeneration  of  Society  "),  with  the  accommodated  text,  "  I 
come  soon,  and  will  renew  all  things."  Schlegel  was,  in  his  way,  a  Pre- 
mUlennariaii. 

*  Ibid.  p.  318. 


132  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

Israel,  distinctively,  compared  with  the  parallel  facts  of 
after  history  corresponding,  seemed  in  no  obscure  manner  to 
hint  at  that  self-same  Judaic  and  unscriptural  vicAV  of  the 
church  sacraments  and  church  ministry,  which  Schlegel 
would  identify  with  the  essence  of  religion,  as  characteristic 
of  the  then  unsealed  Israel,  and  in  no  little  measure  the 
originating  cause  of  the  apostasy.  And  so  thenceforward 
the  prophecy  traced  onward  the  fortunes  and  histories  of 
Christendom  and  the  church  distinctly  in  two  different  lines 
of  succession :  the  one  the  visible  professing  and  more  and 
more  antichristian  church :  the  other  no  visible  coi-jiorate 
Christian  body  (the  once  visible  faithful  Catholic  church 
being  now  hid  from  men  as  in  a  wilderness),  but  the 
x.i'g(«x.;/  ocy.li,(rut*  Christ's  own  real  church,  the  outgath- 
ering  and  election  of  grace,  individually  chosen,  enlightened, 
quickened,  and  sealed  by  Him  with  the  holy  Spirit  of  adop- 
tion :  a  body  notable  as  "  God's  servants  "  for  holy  obedi- 
ence ;  and,  though  few  in  number,  compared  with  the  apos- 
tate professors  of  Christianity,  yet  in  God's  eye  numerally 
perfect  and  complete.f  Thenceforward,  I  say,  the  prophecy 
traced  them  in  their  two  distinct  hnes  of  succession,  through 

*  These  two  woi'ds  have  both  somewhat  remarkably  been  preserved,  in 
the  signification  oi  church,  in  our  modei'n  European  languages:  —  the 
one,  txy.'/.tiniu,  in  the  eijlise,  chiesa,  iylisia,  of  the  French,  Italian,  Span- 
ish, &c. ;  and  the  other,  ynnaxi],  in  the  kirche,  kirk,  church,  of  the 
German,  Scotch,  English,  Dutch,  Swedish,  and  other  northern  tongues. 

Archbishop  Whately  has  indeed  in  his  late  work  on  tlie  kingdom  of 
Christ,  p.  7G,  suggested  a  very  different  origin  to  the  latter  appellative. 
'*  The  word  church,  or  its  equivalent,  kirk,  is  probably  no  other  than  circle, 
that  is,  an  assembly,  ccclcsia."  But  what  his  authority  for  the  statement 
I  know  not  ;  and  its  truth  seems  more  than  problematical.  In  Suicer'a 
Thesaurus  it  will  be  found  that  both  y.rnnonj  and  much  more  genei'ally 
xv'jiaaov  had  come  in  the  fourth  century  to  be  words  used  in  the  sense  of 
church  in  Greek  Christendom.  "  xvQiuy.ur  usitatissime  notat  templum." 
Sic  Can.  5.  Neo-Cses.  Kuxij/oi.'utvoc,  eav  aiosn^ufityog  tig  ro  y.i'iiiay.tiv,  tr  Ty| 
Twr  y.(xiiiy<jii]irti)V  Tain  otrjy}f  Can.  28  Laod.  'On  ov  dfi  ir  Toig  yvijictxoig, 
?;  M'  Tuig  ty.yXtiniaig,  tag  Xiyuuirug  uyunug  vioiitv'  Eusebius  H.  E.  ix.  10  ; 
ICui  T*  y.i'oiuy.a  njciog  yuTuayivaLuiiv  avy/otneiTai.  He  refers  too  to  Can. 
74  in  TruUo  ;  also  to  Athanasius  and  Zonaras.  — I  may  add  that  Cyprian 
and  otliers  of  the  Western  fathers  use  similarly  the  corresponding  Latiu 
word  Domiuicum. 

From  the  language  of  Greek  Christendom  the  word  was  transferred,  I 
presume,  by  Ulphilas,  at  the  close  of  the  fourth  century  into  the  Gothic 
language  ;  and  so  into  the  Saxon  and  other  cognate  tongues.  Thus 
Johnson  in  his  Dictionary  :  "  Church  (cyrce  Saxou,  y.votaytj  Greek)." 

t  Apoc.  7  :   4. 


IN  THE  rROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         133 

their  respective  fortunes  and  histories,  not  without  figura- 
tion of  the  respective  invisible  heads  and  inspircrs  of  their 
respective  politics  and  actions,  whetlier  the  EcU  ^jfirit  or 
the  Good  S/>irU^  down  even  to  the  consummation.  On  the 
one  hand  there  was  depicted  the  body  of  fdlse  professors, 
multiplied  so  as  to  form  the  main  and  dominant  constituency 
of  apostate  Christendom,  as  developing  more  and  more  a 
religion  not  christian  but  antichristian,  it  ])eing  ]):ised  on 
human  traditions  (the  same  that  figure  so  high  in  Sehlcgel's 
estimate),  not  on  (jrod"s  word :  *  and,  after  falling  away  to 
the  Avorship  of  departed  saints  and  martyrs  as  mediators,  in 
place  of  Christ,!  as  alike  in  its  ireslcrn  and  its  eastern 
division  judicially  visited  and  desolated  by  the  divine  aveng- 
ing judgments  of  emblematic  tempests,  scorpion  locusts,  and 
horsemen  from  the  Euphrates;  in  other  words,  of  the  Goths, 
Saracens,  and  Turks  :  J  then  as,  in  its  wcstcni  division, 
rising  up  again  from  the  primary  desolating  judgments  of 
Cothic  invasion,  in  the  new  form  of  an  ecclesiastical  eni- 
])ire  (the  same  that  Schlegel  eulogizes  as  Christ's  true 
church),  enthroned  on  the  seven  hills  of  ancient  Rome: 
its  secret  contriver  being  the  very  Dragon,  or  Satanic  Spirit, 
that  had  ruled  ojienly  before  in  the  Pagan  Empire ;  its 
ruling  head  proud,  persecuting,  blasphemous,  and  self-ex- 
alting against  God,  even  beyond  his  Pagan  precursors ;  § 
its  constituency  and  priesthood,  throughout  Schlogers 
boasted  middle  ages,  characterized  by  "  unrcpented  idola- 
tries (such  is  God's  representation  of  the  Romish  image 
worship  so  strangely  patronized  by  the  German  philoso- 
pher), ||  and  fornications  too,  thefts,  murders,  and  sorceries  :"1I 
in  fine,  as  continuing  unchanged  unchangeable  in  its  apos- 
t;\sy,  notAvithstanding  the  repeated  checks  of  woes  and 
judgments  from  heaven,  even  until  the  end ;  and  therefore 

*  Compare  Apoc.  12  :  17. 

t  Apoc.  8  :   3.     See  Vol.  i.  pp.  307 — 318. 

%  Apoc.  8,  0.  §  Apoc.  12,  13. 

II  See  the  quotation  from  Schlegel  about  the  iconoclastic  Greek  emperors 
in  note  5,  p.  128,  supra. 

Mr.  Sibthorp,  it  is  said  by  Mr.  Faber,  went  over  to  the  Church  of 
Rome  under  the  belief  that  it  did  not  require  idolatrous  worship  of  the 
Virijjin  Mary  ;  and  that  he  has  left  it  and  rejoined  the  Eng;Hsh  Church, 
on  lindins  that  this  was  in  very  truth  required  of  him.  But  did  it  need 
that  he  should  enter  the  Romish  Church  for  evidence  on  such  a  point? 

IT  Apoc.  9  :  20,  21.     See  my  chapter  on  it.  Part  iii.  cb.  1. 

12 


134  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

then  at  length  in  its  impenitencj  to  be  utterly  abandoned 
to  jiulgracnt,  and,  like  another  Sodom,  made  an  example  of 
the  vengeance  of  everlasting  fire  :  *  this  beiny  in  fact  the 
grand  essential  preli?7iinarj/  to  the  icoi'lds  intended  and 
blessed  rcfjoieratinn. 

On  the  other  hand,  with  regard  to  Christ'' s  true  churchy 
tlie  election  of  grace,  consisting  of  such  as  should  hold  to 
Christ  as  their  head,  and  keep  the  "word  of  God  and  testi- 
mony of  Jesus,  the  Apocalyptic  prophecy  represented  them 
as  almost  at  once  entering  on  a  great  and  long  tribulation  ; 
yet  though  in  number  fewer  and  fewer,  and  reduced  soon  to 
a  state  spiritually  destitute  and  desolate,  like  that  of  the 
wilderness,  so  as  to  constitute  them  a  church  invisible  rather 
than  visible,  as  still  secretly  preserved  by  their  Lord.f  A 
revelation  of  God's  doctrines  of  grace  (doctrines  directly 
antagonistic  to  those  of  the  incipient  apostasy)  being  it 
seemed  vouchsafed,  the  result  of  a  direct  ;7r//?/«/-y  interven- 
tion from  heaven  at  this  crisis  of  time,  with  a  view  to  their 
spiritual  preservation  and  life ;  which  revelation,  singularly 
acted  out  before  St.  John  in  the  light-bearing  visions  of  the 
sealing  and  the  palm-bearers,  just  befoi*e  the  burst  of  the 
emblematic  tempests,  was  in  Augustine's  history  and  teach- 
ing, teaching  never  altogether  forgotten  afterwards,  per- 
fectly realized  and  illustrated. ij:  It  then  depicted  the  ac- 
tual loitnesses  for  Christ^ s  canse  and  truth,  from  out  of 
this  little  body,  and  protestors  against  the  reigning  apostasy 
(witnesses  verified  historically  afterwards  in  the  histoiy  of 
those  whom  Schlegel  would  make  heretics,  the  Waldenscs 
more  especially,  and  Wicklif,  and  Huss,  and  their  follow- 
ers).§  as  made  war  on  by  Rome's  revived  empire,  soon  after 
the  completion  of  their  testimony  against  the  several  chief 
doctrines  of  its  apostasy,  and  the  Pope's  full  establishment 
of  his  power,  like  as  by  a  beast  from  the  abyss  of  hell ;  and 
so  being  at  length  conquered,  and  apparently  exterminated  : 
with  the  added  figuration  however  of  their  sudden  and  most 
extraordinary  revival  and  exaltation  almost  instantly  after, 

*Apoc.  18. 

t  Apoc.  12.     See  my  Vol.  iii.  pp.  58—63. 

X  See  the  4th  section  of  my  chapter  on  the  Sealing  Vision  ;  Vol.  i.  pp. 
277—297. 

§  See  my  Part  iii.  chap.  7. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         135 


in  the  presence  of  their  enemies  ;*  a  revelation  from  heaven 
introducing  and  accompanying  it  yet  more  glorious  than  the 
former  one,  even  of  Clirist  as  the  Sun  of  Rigliteousness  :f 
and  a  great  political  revolution  attending,  or  following, 
under  which  the  tenth  part  of  the  ten-kingdomed  ecclesiasti- 
cal empire  would  fall.  All  this  the  prophecy  figured  as  the 
result  of  God's  second  great  intervention  for  his  church  ; 
and  all  this  we  saw,  on  irrefragable  evidence,  to  have  been 
fulfilled  in  the  great  RrfDrnutlion  of  the  IGth  century. 
The  discovery  introducing  it  of  the  doctrine  of  justification 
simply  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  and  the  downfall  following 
it  of  the  tenth  part  of  the  Popedom  in  Papal  England. 
Thus  was  this  Protestant  Reformation  distinctly  figured  in 
the  Apocalypse  as  a  glorious  divine  act.  not  human,  so  as 
Schlegel  would  have  it :  its  excommunication  of  the  Ro- 
man Papal  church,  with  all  its  false  rites  and  traditions 
(by  Schlegel  so  fondly  cherished),  and  its  national  estab- 
lishment too  in  Northern  Germany,  England,  and  elsewhere, 
being  further  depicted  as  acts  directed  from  heaven  :J  and 
its  fiiith,  instead  of  being  (so  as  he  would  call  it)  a  mere 
negation,  represented  to  have  its  very  origin  in  the  positive 
recognition  of  Christ  as  the  Sun  of  Righteousness,  and  only 
source  of  man's  justification,  light,  and  life.  As  to  the 
subsequent  "  indiffcrcntisni  in  rclirjion^''  as  Schlegel  truly 
designates  it,  which  followed  afterwards  in  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  even  in  the  states  and  churches 
of  Protestantism,  it  was  not  unforcshown  in  the  further  devel- 
opments of  the  Apocalypse.  But  what  the  cause  assigned? 
Recause,  amidst  all  the  rejoicings  of  states  and  cliurches  on 
the  establishment  of  a  purer  religion,  it  would  still  be  but 
the  144,000,  the  election  of  grace,  a  church  icithin  a 
church,  that  would  really  understand  and  appreciate  the 
essential  princi[)le  of  that  "new  song"  of  the  Reformation; 
still  that  alone  which  would  be  really  the  xm^/k-//^  ikkIijitiu, 
the  Lord's  church. §  Yet  it  seemed  also  preintimated  how 
(as  if  from  some  gracious  revival  of  religion  in  God's  still 
favored  Protestantism)  there  would  afterwards  speed  forth  in 

*  Apoc.  11:7;  Part  iii.  chap.  8. 

t  Apoc.  10 :  1,  Vol.  ii.  pp.  W—U,  and  01—07. 

i  Apoc.  11  :  2.     See  Vol.  ii.  pp.  179—193. 

§  Apoc.  14  :  1.     Sec  P.art  iv.  Chap.  10  ;  Vol.  iii.  p.  289,  &c. 


136  OUR   PRESENT    POSITION 

the  latter  times  three  missionary  angels,  flying  through  mid- 
heaven,  with  voices  of  faithful  Gospel-preaching  tiiroughout 
the  length  and  breadtli  of  the  world,  of  Avarning  against 
Papal  Rome,  and  denunciation  of  jts  quickly-coming  judg- 
ment :*  (a  contemporary  energetic  revival,  and  going  forth 
of  the  spirit  of  Poj)cry,-f  conjunctively  with  otlier  kindred 
and  allied  spirits  of  Par/an-Uke  hijidel'dy  and  pseudo- 
Christian  priestcraft^  being  but  the  last  putting  forth  of 
its  bravery,  to  hasten  the  final  ci-isis,  and  constitute  the 
precursive  and  justification  of  its  fall  :)  acts  these  that 
would  be  nearly  the  last  public  ones  promoted,  or  mingled 
in,  by  the  little  body  of  Chrst's  faithful  ones  on  earth. 
For  it  was  foreshown  how  that  Christ's  advent  would  speed- 
ily follow  ;  and  contemporarily  therewith,  and  with  tlie  mys- 
tic Babylon's  destruction  by  fire,  his  witnessing  saints  and 
all  that  fear  him,  small  and  great.J  have  the  reward  given 
them  of  an  entrance  into  the  everlasting  kingdom  of  their 
Lord.  And  that  so,  and  then  (not  before,  or  otherwise), 
the  promised  regeneration  of  all  things  (the  Christian's 
great  object  of  hope§)  should  have  its  accomplishment,  in 
Christ's  OAvn  reign  with  his  saints  ;  and  therewith,  at  length, 
the  true  and  only  complete  evangelization  of  the  world. 

Such  is  the  Apocalyptic  nioral  philosophy  of  the  history 
of  Christendom:  such  its  contrast  Avith  Schlegel's-H  Its 
rule  of  faitJt  not  tradition,  hnt  the  Bible,  its  church  of 
the  promises  that  alone  of  true  believers  in  Jesus  ;  and 
God's  glory  in  Christ  the  grand  and  final  object  ever  set 
forth  in  it.  The  review  will  well  prepare  us  for  applying 
to  ourselves,  in  conclusion,   the  moral  lessons  of  the  whole ; 

*  Apoc.  14  :  6,  &c.     See  Vol.  iii.  p.  430—432,  443,  &c. 

t  The  same  tiiat  Sclilegel  boasts  of  as  tlio  glorious  characteristic  of 
these,  our  own  days. 

t  Apoc.  H  :   18. 

§  On  this  point  Schlegel,  in  his  fifth  Lecture,  beautifully  contrasts  the 
religion  of  the  ancient  .Jews  (to  which  Christianity  has  succeeded)  with 
that  of  all  the  other  Asiatic  nations.  In  the  traditions  of  these  latter,  he 
observes,  regret  was  the  prominent  feeling  expressed  for  what  man  had 
lost;  in  the  Hebrew  religion,  lio])e  for  tlie  future.  "The  whole  existence 
of  this  peo])le  turned  on  the  ]nvot  of  hope  ;  and  the  keystone  of  its  moral 
life  projected  its  shadows  far  into  futurity."     i.  183. 

II  To  its  philosophy  in  the  figurations  of  hisloric  fact,  the  reader's  at- 
tention was  directed  in  the  introductory  chapter  of  my  work,  Vol.  i.  pp. 
105 — 107  ;  as  also  in  the  first  section  of  my  present  chapter. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         137 

as  we  look  to  the  probabilities  —  the  awful  and  the  hopeful 
probabilities  —  of  the  fast-coming  future. 

As  a  nation,  then,  does  it  not,  while  pointing  out  how 
and  wherefore  England  has  been  raised  to  its  present  great- 
ness, namely,  in  order  to  its  being  the  great  bulwark  and 
promulgator  througliout  the  world  of  a  Protestant  evangelic 
faith,*  —  solemnly  warn  us  also  against  being  seduced  by 
any  spirit  of  mistaken  expediency,  false  liberalism,  relig- 
ious indiffercntism,!  or,  I  may  add.  party  faction,  to  seek 
nationally  to  itlentify  ourselves  with  the  Papal  antichristian 
religion,  or  any  further  to  foster  its  power,  either  at  home, 
or  in  the  colonies?  Surely  of  toleration  and  civil  privi- 
lege the  utmost  has  been  granted  to  our  Roman  Catholic 
fellow-subjects,  consistent  (to  say  the  least)  with  our  char- 
acter as  a  Protestant  state.  Let  us  beware  lest,  in  the  vain 
hope  of  thoroughly  conciliating  the  Romish  priesthood  in 
our  land, — a  thing  which  history  and  reason,  as  well  as 
prophecy,  have  shown  to  be  impossible,  —  we  abandon  our 
distinctive  Protestant  character  :J  and  therewith,  in  the 
great  coming  crisis,  forfeit  the  high  protectorate,  hitherto 
granted  us.  of  heaven. §  Nor,  let  me  add,  if  in  that  crisis 
(as  prophecy  seems  to  intimate)  the  evangelization  of  the 
heathen,  or  the  evangelization  and  restoration  of  the  Jews, 
prove  in  the  issue  to  be  the  occasion  of  the  great  Romish 
(and  perhaps,  too,  Mahommedan)  powers  uniting  together  in 
some  hostile  and  opposing  confederacy,  let  it  be  forgotten 
which  is  the  Lord's  side  :||  lest  here  too  we  act  as  an  ally, 

*  See  Vol.  ii.  pp.  4oo,  450,  467,  4G8  ;  and  Vol.  ill.  Part  v.  Chap.  8. 

t  A  year  or  two  before  tlie  Act  of  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation,  Mr. 
Gaily  Knight,  in  an  influential  and  able  Pamphlet,  pointed  to  the  case  of 
the  then  Dutch  and  Belgian  kingdom  in  proof  of  the  possible  thorough 
union  of  Protestants  and  Catholics  under  a  Protestant  Government.  The 
very  next  year  the  Protestant  Government  there  was  overthrown  by  a 
united  Romish  and  Democratic  insurrection. 

As  to  the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  Emancipation  Act,  who,  even  of  its  most 
sanguine  advocates,  has  not  confessed  to  disappointment  in  the  results? 

t  For  example  by  "  the  great  meixsure,"  as  some  have  called  it,  of  pay- 
ing the  Irish  Roman  Catholic  Priesthood  from  the  national  funds. 

Since  the  publication  of  my  first  edition,  we  have  to  regret  that  our 
national  Protestant  character  should  have  been  further  compromised  by 
the  Maynooth  endowment ; —  however  patriotic  the  motives  of  the  miuii 
try  that  originated  it. 

§  Let  me  refer  on  this  head  to  the  illustrative  historic  sketch  prefixed 
by  Dr.  Croly,  to  his  treatise  on  the  Apocalypse. 

II  Sec  pp.  122,  123. 

12* 


138  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

if  not  constituent,  of  Babylon ;  and  become  nationally  a 
partaker  of  her  sins,  and  nationally,  in  God's  coming  judg- 
ment on  the  nations,  a  partaker  also  of  her  tremendous  pun- 
ishment. 

Further,  has  it  not  a  voice  to  us  as  a  cJinrch?  I  speak 
of  the  church  established  by  God"s  gracious  Providence  in 
this  kingdom.  IMay  Ave  not,  from  that  holy  prophecy  that 
\ic  have  been  considering,  infer  it  to  be  its  paramount  duty, 
wisdom,  and  even  safety,  to  hold  fast  the  pure  and  scriptu- 
ral doctrine  on  which  it  was  founded  at  the  Reformation : 
and  to  eschew  and  repudiate,  not  the  principles  of  direct 
Popery  only,  or  even  of  the  modern  Tractarian-semi- 
Popery  (Avhich  is  but  in  truth  that  earlier  form  of  the 
great  apostasy  revivified,  to  which  in  due  time,  as  we 
have  seen,  and  through  Satanic  artifice,  Rome  did  but  fur- 
nish the  fitting  headship*)  ;  but  also  of  every  modification 
of  the  same,  which  may  seek  to  make  religion  a  thing 
ecclesiastical,  rather  than  a  thing  personal  and  spiritual ; 
and  to  interpose  the  church,  with  its  priesthood  and  services 
and  sacraments,  between  the  soul  and  Christ,* instead  of 
asserting  it  as  their  one  grand  prerogative  and  ofiice  to 
direct  the  soul  to  Christ  ?  Surely  it  is  a  strange  misnomer 
to  call  this  system,  as  with  laudatory  title,  Hi(/h  Church, 
and  decry  the  opposite  system  by  the  vituperatively-intended 
title  of  Low  Church.  The  true  loiv  churclvmen  seem  to 
me  they  who  fiishion  their  heau  ideal  of  an  ecclesiastical 
system  simply  or  chiefly  with  reference  to  an  earthly 
church,  and  its  human  administration  and  administrators. 
The  true  hifjh  cliurchrncn  seem'  to  be  they,  the  church  of 
whose  chief  affections  and  thoughts  is  the  Jerusalem  above 
—  that  which  has  for  its  head,  Christ;  its  home,  heaven; 
and  this,  our  earth,  as  but  the  scene  of  its  preparatory 
formation  and  trial ;  a  scene  whereon  its  members,  scattered 
everywhere  through  the  visible  church,  and  known  to  God, 
though  often  unknown  to  men,  are  by  the  common  principle 
of  union  with  Christ  their  invisible  head,  united  verily  and 
in  truth  with  each  other,  and  united  with  those  too  of  the 
same  body  that  may  have  already  passed  into  Paradise. f     It 

*Apocl3:  2. 

t  Compare  Eph.  3:    15,  —  "our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  from  whom   the 
whole  family  in  heaven  and  on  earth  is  named." 


IN  THE  TROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         139 

is  this  church  which  St.  Paul's  glowing  eloquence  set  forth 
to  the  Ephesian  Christians,  as  the  church,  the  bride  which 
Christ  loved,  and  purchased,  and  purposes  "  to  present  to 
himself  glorious,  without  spot  or  wrinkle  ;"'*  to  the  Gala- 
tians  as  "  the  Jerusalem  that  is  above,  which  is  the  mother 
of  us  all  :'"f  and  to  the  Hebrews,  as  "  the  church  of  the  first 
born.  J  whose  names  arc  written  in  heaven."  This,  that  of 
which,  in  the  Apocalyptic  visions,  St.  John  beheld  the  for- 
tunes figured,  througliout  all  its  successive  generations  mil- 
itant on  earth  ;  even  until  the  time  of  their  perfected  union, 
number,  and  blessedness,  as  the  Lamb's  bride.  New  Jerusa- 
lem.§  And  so,  accordingly,  the  earlier  confessoi-f,  that 
witnessed  for  Christ  under  I'agan  Rome,  recognized  her  as 
tlm  rhurcli.  the  mother  church,  and  rejoiced  in  her  as  chil- 
dren. ||     And  when  stealthily  afterwards  the  earthly  mixed 

*Epl..  5:25—27.  t  Gal.  4  :  26. 

%  txxkiaia  nnu'ToToxwy'  Hcb.  12  :  23. 

§Apoc.  7:3,  4,  &c.;  14:  1,  &c.;  17:  14;  20:  4;  21  :  2,  10-12;  22: 
8,  4,  &c. 

V  Let  me  exemplify,  as  I  have  not  dii-ectly  done  so  before  : 

1.  fynalius,  in  the  heading  of  his  letter  to  the  church  at  Ephesus, 
(a  very  striking  and  illustrative  document,  of  chronology  immediately 
following  the  Apostolic  time),  speaks  of  it  ns  predestinated  by  God  before 
the  world  to  glory  :  thereby  distinctly  defining  the  true  spiritual  church 
at  Ephesus  as  the  object  of  his  address,  though  in  charity,  supposing  all 
to  belong  to  it  of  the  members  of  the  professini;  church  there  constituted; 
2)rofessing  as  they  did  under  circumstances  of  trial  and  persecution,  so 
calculated  to  prevent  the  adhesion  of  any  but  true  disciples.  lyiuriog,  h 
y.ai  GioifuQoc,  rf]  tLXoj'>;i(«ii;  tv  utytdct  &iov  JJuTooi  xai  nkfi)u<tiati,  itj 
Tiitootnioiityi;  7ti<o  aiwviur  urai  dta  tiujtoc  fig  dusar  naQatiovor,  arQtnToVf 
(iou(ti  ijV,  xat  t>f/(/f)'Kti»;i',  tv  7Ta6n  aXrfiirot,  tr  &t/.};iiaTi  jov  TfaTQog  xai 
Jr^auv  XfJiOTov  rov  Gtov  i,utar,  t>/  txxXi,ain  tj;  aitoftaxuntaxoi  TJi  ovan  tv 
E(ftnci). 

2.  Tlie  Epistle  which  contains  the  ~^cls  of  Polycarp^s  Martyrdom  is 
addrest  by  "  the  church  of  God  which  sojourns  at  Smyrna,  to  that  which 
sojourns  at  Philomclium,  and  in  all  places  where  the  Holy  Catholic 
church  sojourns  throughout  the  world  :"  thereby  indicating  necessarily, 
I  think,  that  spiritual  and  true  church,  of  whioli  the  members  feel  and 
live  as  pilgrims  here,  and  with  their  home  in  heaven. 

3.  Justin  Martyr,  Dial,  cum  Tryph.  p.  287,  speaks  of  the  church  as 
Christ's  bride,  prophesied  of  in  Psalm  45  :  which  church  we  know  from 
other  Scriptures  to  be  that  symbolized  as  the  heavenly  Jerusalem  ;  made 
up  only  of  the  true  and  the  saved. 

4.  Similarly  Tertullian,  de  Baptismo,  100  :  15,  says  ;  "  Et  una  ecclesia 
in  calis  ;"*  and  in  his  De  Cor.  lOO  :  13, —  "  Sed  tu  peregrinus  es  mundi 

*  On  which  observes  his  Rnniish  Kditnr  P.imelius  :  "  et  in  terris  videtur  dcsidcrari. 
Ktsi  antem  a<l  Epli.  4,  id  apertt-  non  habeatur,  sublndicitur  tamen  his  verbis,  Unum 
corpux  et  unug  spiritus  •  quemadmodum  S.  Cyprianus  pulchre  explicat,  liibro  De 
Unitate  Ecclesiie." 


140  OUR   PRESENT   POSITION 

corporate  body,  so  called,  came  to  be  more  and  more  sub- 
stituted for  it  in  fact,  when  more  and  more  alienated  from 
it  in  spirit,  and  to  usurp  to  itself  the  other's  dignity,  titles, 
privileges,  and  claims;  man's  earthly  church  those  of  God's 
heavenly  church,  the  thing  ecclesiastical  those  of  the  things 
spiritual,* — then  we  saw  (let  me  be  excused  if  I  repeat 
on  a  point  so  luoinentous),  Augustine  seemed  raised  up  for 
the  special  purpose  of  setting  it  forth  again  before  men  as 
the  only  true  church  of  heavenly  promise.f  Taught  by 
whom,  or  at  least  accordantly  with  whom,  when  ages  suc- 
ceeded afterwards  of  darkness  deeper  and  deeper  J  (very  much 

hujus,  clvis  supernee  Hierusalem  :  noster,  inquit,  municipatus  in  coe- 
lis." 

5.  And  so  iigain,  the  author  of  the  beautiful  Epistle  to  JOiognetus, 
quoted  before  by  me,  vol.  i.  p.  'J6.  "Christians  (namely,  the  constitu- 
ency of  the  church)  display  the  ■wonderful  nature  ol'  their  peculiar  polity. 
They  dwell  in  their  own  country  but  as  sojourners  :  they  abide  on  earth, 
but  are  citizens  of  heaven.^' 

*  Of  all  the  early  fathers,  none,  I  believe,  contributed  to  this  more  than 
the  excellent  Cyprian  ;  especially  by  his  well-meant,  and  in  many  respects 
valuable  Treatise,  De  Unitate  Ecclesice.  For  the  error  attaches  to  it  of 
arguing  from  such  passages  as  "  Thou  art  Peter,  &c.,  and  on  this  rock  I 
build  my  church,'^  and  that,  "  What  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven,"  and  again,  "  As  my  Father  hath  sent  me,  so  send  I 
you,"  with  reference  almost  wholly  to  the  apostolic  commission  transmit- 
ted officially  downwai-ds  to  the  episcopal  rulers  of  the  church  ;  instead 
of  urging  the  essentiality,  as  other  fathers  did,*  in  order  to  the  enjoyment 
of  these  promises  and  prerogatives,  of  adherence  to  the  apostolic  faith  : 
and  the  error  also  of  identifying  the  eartlily  church  visible,  governed 
by  these  rulers,  with  that  against  which  the  gates  of  hell  should  not  pre- 
vail, namely,  Christ's  spiritual  church,  the  bride.  "  Super  unum  (sc. 
Petrura)  oedificat  cccZcsitt?;i  swam.  .  .  .  Exordium  ab  unitate  proficiscitur, 
ut  ecclesia  una  monstretur  :  quam  uuam  ecclesiam  etiam  in  Cantico 
Canticorum  Spiritus  Sanctus  ex  persona  Domini  designat,  et  dicit,  '  Una 
est  columba  mea,  perfecta  mea.'  "  But  we  must  always  recollect  that  in 
Cyprian's  time  the  professing  church  was  esseutiaUy  faithful ;  and  indeed 
tested  and  purified  by  persecution. 

t  More  often  Augustine  speaks  of  Christ's  true  church  under  its  char- 
acter of  a  polity,  the  Civitus  Dei.  But  at  times  he  conjoins  two  f)hrases. 
So  C.  D.  17 :  4,  3  ;  "Ecclesia  Christi,  civitas  Regis  Magni ;"  also  17  : 
IG,  2,  &c.  t  See  my  vol.  i.  295. 

*  So  Cyril  Alex.  De  Trin.  iv.  1:  TIitquv  oiiiui  7Tanu)rvub)g  sriQov  ovSiv 
i;  Tijv  axuruaetarov  y.ai  sdoaiuTuirj}'  rov  ^iu(fvjov  thotiv  anuy.aXwv,  e(/)'  «  xai 
aSianrwTU)?  cor/iiiaTui  y.ai  Siu.icnriytv  i^  txxA^aia  tuv  Xoiotuv,  y.ai  avTuig 
avaXvrvog  Tuig  uSov  7iv?.uic  tig  uet  diuutrovnu.  And  Oriyen  .-  Ilirna  yuQ  nag 
6  Xqiotov  H«(3ijT>;?,  «(/)'  6v  tTcirov  ol  ty  Trvevfiartyiig  uxoXovdovatjg  niTQag' 
y.ai  tni  nuauv  ri]y  xonxvr>]v  nttnav  oiyodofitiTai  o  iy.yi.t^aiuarixog  nag  ?.oYog, 
y.ai  ij  x«t'  uinof  7lo?.iT(ia'  ev  iy.aorco  yuo  Tov  te/£iw>',  affinXy]QovvTu)V  Ttjv 
ftuyainoTara  ?.oy<xiv  y.ai  toyuiv  y.ai  voi^uaxuiv,  lariv  ij  vno  Tov  0eov  oixoSo- 
fiovuev)!  tyy.'/.tjaia.     In  Matt.  16  :  18.  —  So,  too,  Augustine. 


IN  THK  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         141 

through  this  self-same  error),  the  confessors  of  the  middle 
age,  living  under  that  perfected  form  of  the  apostatized 
ecclesiastical  and  earthly  thing,  Rome  Papal,  "  Mother 
and  Mistress,'^  were  mainly  saved  from  her  sorceries  by 
recognizing  the  distinction,  and  choosing  and  appropriating 
the  heavenly  church  as  their  own.*  And  so  too,  still  later, 
the  churches  of  the  Reformation,  our  own  especially  inclus- 
ive :  which,  whilt  In  rJinritij^  like  the  apo.stles  and  early 
Christians,  regarding  and  speaking  of  all  members  of  the 
church  visible,  not  openly  inconsistent,  as  belonging  to  it,f 
did  still  prominently  set  forth,  distinctively  from  the  churcli 

*  See  my  historical  application  of  the  Vision  of  the  144,000  seen  by  St, 
John  with  Christ  on  Mount  Zioii,  in  contrast  and  opposition  to  the  Beast 
Antichrist's  niultitucliiious  worshippers  in  Babylon,  vol.  iii.  p.  282. 

"  In  common  with  tlic  soundest  divines,"  says  Professor  Le  Bas, 
"  Wicliff  allows  the  distinction  between  the  church  visible  and  the  church 
invisible.  The  latter  he  calls  the  very  body  of  Christ,  tlic  former  his 
mcillicil  (or  mixeil)  body  ;  which  includes  men  ordained  to  bliss,  and  hj-po- 
critcs doomed  to  perdition."  p.  ;>;58.  Mark,  too,  the  pi'omiuence  of  tJiia 
point  in  the  examinations  of  Lord  Cohhum  and  others  of  the  later  JVic- 
lijfite.s,  before  the  Romish  tribunals  ;  and  the  "  Credo  unam  esse  sanctara 
catholicara  Ecclesiam,"  perpetuated  as  Huss's  motto  on  his  medal,  given 
at  vol.  ii.  p.  442  ;  also  Luther's  public  recognition  of  this  doctrine  of 
IIuss,  vol.  iii.  p.  284,  Note  §  ;  and  the  same  in  the  examination  of  Philpot 
and  other  Anglican  reformers  of  the  Itjth century. 

t  I  bog  to  call  the  reader's  careful  attention  to  this  point,  as  one  that 
seems  to  me  most  important.  There  are  two  principles  on  wiiich  an  inter- 
preter may  attempt  the  explanation  of  the  various  eulogistic  phrases, 
such  as  the  elect,  the  faithful,  &c.,  addrest  by  the  apostles  to  the  churches 
they  write  to.  The  one  is  that  wiiich  explains  them  of  mere  ecclesiastical 
election,  and  prof  est  faith  ;  and  consequently  applies  them  to  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  professing  church  indiscriminatelj',  tlic  true  alike,  and  the 
false.  Tlie  other  is  that  Avhich  regards  tlie  phrases  as  properly  belonging 
only  to  tlie  true  members,  that  is,  the  constituency  of  the  spiritual  church  : 
and  consequently  applies  the  terms  generally  only  in  the  spirit  of  charity ; 
hoping,  where  there  exists  no  plain  evidence  to  the  contrary,  in  the  sin- 
cerity of  men's  profession.  I  feel  deeply  persuaded  that  the  latter  is  the 
only  one  tliat  can  be  consistently  ami  satisfactorily  carried  out. 

So  Lciijhton,  on  1  I'ct.  1  :  2.  "  The  Apostle  denominates  all  the  Chris- 
tians to  whom  he  writes  by  the  condition  of /rj/c  Z)c/u'rers;  calling  them 
elect  !V\\t\  sanctifieil,  &c.  And  St.  Paul  writes  in  the  same  style  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  churches.  .  .  Not  that  all  in  these  churches  were  such  in- 
deed :  but  because  they  professed  to  be  such,  and  by  that  their  profession 
and  calling  .as  Christians  were  oblige<l  to  be  such,  and  as  many  of  them  as 
were  in  any  measure  true  to  their  calling  and  profession  weie  really  such. 
Bosiiles,  .  .  in  all  probability,  there  would  be  then  fewer  false  Christians, 
and  the  number  of  ti-ue  believers  usually  greater,  than  now  in  the  best 
reformed  churches."  Compare  the  extracts  from  Clement  of  Rome  and 
Justin  Martyr,  given  in  my  vol.  i.  p.  250,  Note  t- 


142  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 


visible*  "  the  blessed  company  of  all  faithful  people,"  "  the 
members  incorporate  of  the  mystical  body  of  Christ  :"f  — 

*In  its  17th  Article,  our  cliurch  sketches  the  liistory,  formation,  and 
character  of  the  blessed  company  that  constitute  Christ's  true  invisible 
church  ;  in  its  I'Jth,  a  true  visible  church  (sucli  as  may  be  fitted  to 
gather  in,  and  nourish  tlie  invisible),  as  being  "one  in  which  the  pure 
word  of  God  is  pi-eachcd,  and  sacraments  rightly  administered."  Its 
Burial  Service  alludes  to  the  invisible  or  spiritual  church  under  the  ap- 
pellation of  the  number  of  the  elect :  "  That  thou  -wouldcst  shortly  accom- 
plish the  number  of  thine  elect,  and  liasten  thy  kingdom." 

So,  too,  in  the  Prayer  for  the  Ember  AVeeks  :  "  Almighty  God,  who  hast 
purchased  to  thyself  an  universal  church,  by  the  precious  blood  of  thy 
dear  Son." 

t  So  the  Anglican  Communion  Service.  Similarly  says  the  Homily  on 
Whitsunday,  though  speaking  of  tliis  church's  earthly  state  :  "  The  true 
church  is  an  universal  congregation  or  fellowship  of  God's  faithful  and 
elect  people,  built  upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets." 

Let  me  add  the  following  from  King  Edward  Vlth's  Short  Catechism  : 

M.  Now  remaineth  that  thou  speak  of  the  Holy  Church.  S.  Afore 
that  the  Lord  God  had  made  the  heaven  and  earth,  he  determined  to  have 
for  himself  a  most  beautiful  kingdom  and  holy  commonwealth.  The  apos- 
tles and  ancient  fathers  that  wi"ote  in  Greek  called  it  (xy?.t^niu  ;  in  English, 
a  congregation  or  assembly  :  into  the  which  he  hath  admitted  an  infinite 
number  of  men,  that  should  all  be  subjects  to  one  king  as  their  sovereign, 
and  only  one  head  :  Him  we  call  Christ,  which  is  to  say.  Anointed.  .  .  To 
the  furnishing  of  this  commonwealth  belong  all  they  as  many  as  do  truly 
fear,  honor,  and  call  upon  God,  wholly  applying  their  mind  to  holy  and 
godly  living  ;  and  all  those  that,  putting  all  their  hope  and  trust  in  him, 
do  assuredly  look  for  the  bliss  of  everlasting  life.  But  as  many  as  are  in 
tills  faith  steadfast,  were  fore-chosen,  predestinate,  and  appointed  out  to 
everlasting  life,  before  the  world  was  made.  Witness  thereof  they  have 
within  their  hearts,  the  Spirit  of  Christ  ;  the  author,  earnest,  and  unfail- 
able  pledge  of  their  faith.  Which  faith  only  is  able  to  perceive  the  myste- 
ries of  God,  only  bringeth  peace  into  the  heart,  only  taketh  hold  on  the 
righteousness  that  is  in  Christ  Jesus. 

Then,  in  answer  to  the  question,  "  Canst  thou  yet  further  depainl  me  out 
that  congregation  which  thou  callest  a  kingdom  or  commonweal  of  Chris- 
tians "  (evidently  the  same  Christian  congregation,  kingdom,  common- 
wealth or  church,  of  which  a  description  had  been  given  in  the  preceding 
extract  from  the  Catechism),  "  and  so  set  it  before  mine  eyes  that  it  may 
be  known  asunder  from  each  otlier  fellowship  of  men,"  "  some  certain 
congregations  that  maybe  seen," — the  Scholar  defines  it  as  consisting 
of  those  who  not  only  "  profess  the  pure  and  upright  learning  of  Christ, 
as  it  is  faithfully  set  forth  in  the  Holy  Testament,"  and  "use  his  Sacra- 
ments with  pureness  and  simplicity,"  but  also  "  in  all  points  are  gov- 
erned and  ruled  by  the  laws  and  statutes  of  their  king  and  high  bishop 
Christ,  in  the  bond  of  charity,"  and  "  banish  out  of  the  church  such  as 
will  not  amend  their  lives."  And  he  concludes  respecting  it  thus  :  "  This 
is  that  same  church  which  Paul  calleth  the  pillar  and  upholding  stay  of 
truth.  To  this  church  belong  the  keys,  wherewith  heaven  is  locked  and 
unlocked  ;  for  that  is  done  by  tlic  ministration  of  the  word,  whereunto 
properly  belongeth  the  power  to  bind  and  loose,  to  hold  for  guilty  and 
forgive  sins."     After  which  the  Catechism  proceeds  thus  : 


OUR   PRESENT   POSITION  143 

that  s/)irUual  church,  the  gathering  of  whose  members  out 
of  "this  naughty  world,"*  and  their  nourishing  strength- 
ening and  edification,!  is  the  great  object  of  all  earthly  and 
visible  orthodox  churches,  with  all  their  admirable  and 
divinely  appointed  instrumentalities  and  means  of  grace  ; 
an  object  on  the  completion  of  which  such  scaft'oldings  will 
be  set  aside,  as  things  that  have  answered  their  purpose, 
and  are  needed  no  more.l  Is  it  not  very  mainly  from  con- 
fusion of  those  two  very  different  things,  the  church  of 
true-hearted  spiritual  believers,  simply  and  alone  (a  cor- 
poration to  human  eye  invisible^),  and  the  church  prof ess- 

"  M.  Tliis  would  I  hear  of  thee,  why  it  immediately  followeth  [that  is, 
after  mention  in  the  Creed  of  the  Holy  Gho^i],  that  we  believe  the  holy 
Universal  Church  and  the  Communion  of  Saint'i  ? — S.  These  two 
thinjis  I  have  always  thought  to  be  most  fitlj'  coupled  together,  because 
the  fellowships  and  incorporations  of  other  men  proceed,  and  be  governed 
by,  other  means  and  policies  ;  but  tlie  churcli,  whicli  is  an  assembly  of 
men  called  to  everlasting  salvation,  is  both  gathered  together  and  governed 
bj'  the  Holy  Ghost.  ^Yilioh  thing,  sith  it  cannot  be  perceived  by  bodily 
sense  or  light  of  nature,  is  by  right  and  for  good  reason  here  reckoned 
among  things  that  are  known  bj'  belief.  [That  is,  placed  in  the  CrcC(L'\ 
And,  therefore,  this  calling  together  of  the  faithful  is  called  universal, 
because  it  is  bound  to  no  one  special  place.  For  God  throughout  all  coasts 
of  tlie  world  hath  them  that  worship  him  ;  which  though  they  be  far  scat- 
tered asunder  by  divers  distance  of  covintries  and  dominions,  yet  are  they 
members  most  nearly  joined  of  that  same  bod j' whereof  Christ  is  the  head; 
and  have  one  spirit,  faith,  sacraments,  prayers,  forgiveness  of  sins,  and 
heavenly  bliss,  common  among  them  alL"  —  Liturgies  of  King  EdAvard 
VI.  pp.  511,  51-1.     Parker  edition. 

*So  our  Ordination  Service.  "  Ye  arc  called  to  teach,  feed,  and  pro- 
vide for  the  Lord's  family  :  and  to  seek  for  Christ's  sheep  that  arc  dis- 
persed abroad,  and  for  his  children  who  arc  in  the  midst  of  this  naughty 
world  (that  is,  professing  Christendom  ) ;  that  they  maybe  saved  through 
Christ  for  ever." 

t  Compare  Ejih.  4 :  12 :  "He  gave  some  apostles,  some  evangelists, 
some  pastors  and  teachei's,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  edifying 
of  the  hodyof  Christ ;"  that  is,  of  the  church  of  the  redeemed,  "  which  is 
his  body."     Ibid.  1  :  2.". 

X  So  Leighton  (the  truest  as  well  as  sweetest  exponent  of  Anglican 
church  doctrine)  on  1  Pet.  2:5:     "  Ye  are  built  up  a  spiritual  house." 

"  This  building  is  the  whole  invisible  church  of  God,  and  each  good 
man  is  a  stone  of  this  building.  For  this  purpose  chiefly  did  God  make 
the  world,  the  heaven  and  earth,  that  in  it  he  might  raise  this  spiritual 
building  to  himself,  to  dwell  in  forever.  .  .  The  continuance  of  this  present 
world,  as  it  now  is,  is  but  for  the  service  of  this  work,  like  the  scallblding 
about  it  :  and  therefore,  when  this  spiritual  building  shall  be  fully  com- 
pleted, all  the  present  frame  of  things  in  the  world,  and  in  the  church 
itself,  shall  be  taken  away,  and  appear  no  more." 

§  (if  course  in  their  individual  ciiai-acter  the  members  of  Christ's  true 
church  will  be  visible  as  "  lights  in  the  Avorld,"  in  proportion  as  their  walk 


144         IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR. 

ing  and  visible*  together  with  a  mistaken  Judaic  view 

and  conversation  are  consistent.  Moreover  it  is  possible  for  a  community  of 
true-hearted  Ciiristians,  unmixt  with  false,  to  be  visibly  associated  together 
in  social  fellowship  and  religious  worship.  Such,  for  example,  was  the 
earliest  primitive  church  constituted  on  the  great  day  of  Pentecost  at  Je- 
rusalem ;  such  the  pi"imitivc  churches,  as  first  constituted,  at  Philippi  and 
Thessalonica  :  which  beautiful  models  the  Catechist  of  King  Edward  seems 
to  have  had  in  his  eye  in  the  extract  just  given  from  the  Catechism.  But 
since  that  morning-day  of  the  Christian  church  thc^'  have  been  but  the 
unrealized  ideal  model  of  a  church  visible.  JFor  in  every  case  tares  began 
almost  immediately  to  mix  with  the  wheat  in  the  early  churches,  as  the 
Apostolic  Epistles  themselves  show,  agreeably'  with  our  Lord's  prophetic 
parable.  And  so  a  visible  church  of  the  true-hearted,  distinctively  and 
alone,  was  no  moi-e  to  be  found.  Nor  this  alone.  But  as  corruption 
became  more  and  more  prevalent,  and  tainted  not  only  the  individual 
character  of  the  jji-ofessing  church's  members,  but  also  its  doctrinal  teach- 
ing, profest  ftvith,  and  public  worship,  then  even  what  might  be  called  a 
true  visible  professing  church  existed  not  ;  and  the  Apocalyptic  symbol 
at  length  had  fulfilment  of  the  true  Catholic  church,  once  visible,  being 
driven  into  a  state  of  invisibility  and  barrenness,  like  as  of  a  wilderness. 
Nor  even  in  that  comparatively  small  portion  of  ancient  Roman  Christen- 
dom, in  which  orthodox  doctrine  and  pui-e  forms  of  worship  were  restored 
at  the  Reformation,  has  the  mass  of  any  visible  church  community  an- 
swered in  spirit  and  chai'acter  to  its  profession.  Compare  Apoc.  14  :  3,  a 
passage  already  before  referred  to. 

*  I  cannot  better  illustrate  this  than  from  IMr.  Gresley's  "  True  Church- 
man." He  observes  (p.  35,  6th  Ed.)  :  "It  is  the  right  or  the  wrong 
belief  in  the  doctrine  of  the  one  Catholic  and  Apostolic  church,  which 
makes  all  the  diiference,  rendering  men  sound  orthodox  churchmen,  or 
wavering  Schismatics.  Some  not  very  spiritual  persons  have  adopted  a 
mode  of  speaking  of  the  church  as  the  body  of  true  believers  in  all  the 
world.  It  is  manifestly  a  mere  political  manoeuvre.*  Let  us  turn  to  the 
Bible.  The  word  eft !<rc/i  occurs  in  a  good  many  places  in  Scripture;  in 
the  large  majority  of  which  it  is  applied  to  a  relirjious  community  existing 
visibly  upon  earth,  which  was  liable  to  persecution,  vexation,  extension, 
could  receive  complaints,  admit  or  reject  members,  deliberate,  decide  con- 
troversies, send  messengers,  be  edified,  take  care  of,  salute,  and  be  saluted, 
in  short,  could  exercise  all  the  functions  of  a  visible  human  society."  Then 
he  adds,  "  There  are  a  few,  very  few,  exceptions  ;  as  in  the  Epistle  to 
the  Ephesians,  where  it  is  said  that  Christ  gave  himself  for  it,  that  he 
might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  not  having  spot,  or  wrinkle, 
or  any  such  thing.  Here  evidently  the  Apostle  alludes  to  some  prospect- 
ive condition  of  Ihe  church  ;  because  not  even  one  individual  member  of 
the  church  on  earth  is  on  this  side  of  the  grave  perfectly  sinless.  This 
perfect  holiness,  therefore,  can  be  ascribed  only  to  the  church  triumphant  : 
as  in  the  Hebrews,  where  the  heavenly  .Jerusalem  is  spoken  of  as  the  gen- 
eral assembly  and  church  of  the  first-born  which  are  written  in  heaven, 
the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect." 

Let  me  ask,  is  there  not  some  confusion  of  ideas,  or  of  language,  in  this 
passage  ?     In  the  first  part  Mr.  Gresley  speaks  of  the  church   (the  one- 

*  Was  it  so  with  Archbishop  Leijihton  ?  Or  with  tlie  founders  of  the  church  to  which 
Mr.  Gresley  belongs,  whose  views  to  this  effect  I  have  noted  above  ? 


OUR   PRESENT   POSITION  145 

of  the  Christian  ministry  or  priesthood,*  that  most  of  those 
Oxford  anti- Anglican  errors  liave  sprung,  ■wliosc  legitimate 
end  and  perfecting  is  in  the  Romish  doctrine  and  church  ?f 
especially  as  conjoined  Avith  misunderstanding  or  forgetful- 

Calholic  and  Apostolic  church)  as  a  religious  community  existing  visi- 
bly on  earth,  inchiiliiig  (as  appears  from  the  context)  all  its  professuig 
members,  and  govenicd  by  bishops  of  the  oflicial  apostolic  succession. 
Then  he  quotes  a  certain  few  passages  from  Scripture,  which  allude,  he 
sfiys,  to  a  profpcrtirc  and  triumphant  condition  of  the  church.  Now,  in 
thus  speaking,  either  Mr.  Grcsley  means  by  the  church  the  same  community 
that  he  before  designated  under  that  name,  though  in  a  different  stage  and 
state  of  existence  ;  which  is  the  natural  and  only  proper  meaning  of  his 
words,  in  which  case  he  makes rt//  professing  and  uncxcpmmunicated  mem- 
bers of  the  earthly  episcopal  churches  to  be  members  of  the  church  tri- 
umphant in  heaven  ;  au  error  surely  as  fearful  as  palpable  !  —  Or  else  ho 
means  by  the  church  in  one  sentence  one  thing  ;  in  the  next  quite  another  : 
namely,  in  the  first,  the  Christian  visible  community,  including  both  true 
and  false,  the  tares  and  the  wheat;  in  the  other,  the  wheal  or  true  church 
only.  Ou  which  latter  hypothesis  he  virtually  admits  the  distinction  that 
he  is  so  bent  on  denying,  between  the  church  visible  and  church  invisible: 
while  violating  at  tlie  same  time  that  distinctness,  which  is  a  primary  rule 
of  good  writing.  What  if,  in  Algebra,  the  equation  A  =  a  -\-a  being  pro- 
posed (as  the  church  visihlc  includes  both  the  true  and  the  false  members 
of  it),  some  one  in  working  out  the  problem  were  without  notice  to  use  a, 
after  a  step  or  two,  as  by  itself  alone  tlic  equivalent  of  A  7 

As  to  the  difference  between  ^Ir.  Gresley  and  his  own  church  on  the 
general  view,  the  notes  preceding  will,  I  think,  show  it  clearly. 

I  am  not  unaware  that  certain  eminent  opponents  of  the  ecclesiastical 
s^'stcm  advocated  by  Mr.  Gresley  do  yet  agree  with  him  in  speaking  of 
the  appellative  sons  of  God  as  one  applied  by  St.  Paul  to  all  the  members 
of  the  church  visible,  "  whether  they  walk  worthy  of  their  high  calling 
or  not."  So  Ai'chbishop  Whateloy  in  his  "  Kingdom  of  God,"  p.  8  :  who 
also,  at  p.  52,  notes  all  tliesc  as  constituting  the  communion  of  saints.  But 
woulil  St.  Paul  liave  counted  in  that  communion  such  false  professors 
as  he  alludes  to,  Acts  20  :  30  ;  PliU.  3 :  I'j;  2  Cor.  11 :  13,  15  ;  Judo 
112,  &c.  ? 

*  See  ray  general  argument  on  this  subject  on  the  Sealing  Vision,  part  i. 
ch.  7  :  §  3,  couclude<l  vol.  i.  pp.  274  —  270. 

It  was  through  this  erroneous  view,  primarily,  that  Mr.  Sibthorp  was 
led  to  join  Rome.  So  he  himself  tells  us,  in  his  very  illustrative  letter  of 
jnstilieation,  and  I  fear  it  still  partially  affects  some,  who  would  yet  shrink 
back  from  Oxford  Tractarianism.  I  nn"ght  exemplify  in  a  late  ordination 
sermon  by  one  much  to  be  esteemed,  ou  2  Cor.  8  :  23,  based  very  much 
on  this  official,  ecclesiastical,  Levitical  view  of  the  Episcopacy,  Church, 
and  Priesthood  :  as  if  from  his  mere  office  a  bishop  or  presbyter  can  be  the 
glory  of  Christ,  unless  he  hold,  preach,  and  live  tlie  doctrine  of  Christ : 
or  as  if  men  baptized  can  be  really  brethren  to  Christ's  saints,  unless 
they  be  really  and  in  heart  jnenibei's  incorporate  with  Christ  the  head. 

t  AYhat  an  illustration  of  this  has  been  given,  since  my  first  edition  was 
published,  in  the  apostasy  to  Rome  of  the  chief  Oxford  Tnxctariaus, 
Messrs.  Newman,  Ward,  Oakley,  Fabcr,  Maskell,  &c.!  [ith  Ed.] 

13 


146  Oril   PRESENT    rOSITION 

ness  as  to  the  great  predicted  ecclesiastical  apostasy^  which, 
according  to  prophecy,  was  to  run  on  even  from  St.  Paul's 
time  within  the  professing  church,  in  chronological  parallel- 
ism with  the  constituency  and  doctrine  of  Christ's  true 
church,  and  at  length  all  but  stifle  the  latter  ?*  So,  as  to 
the  Apocalyptic  book's  view  of  Christ's  church  of  the 
2V'nmises.  Add  to  which  the  lesson  from  its  definition  of 
Christ's  witnesses,  as  those  who  "  keep  the  commandments 
of  God  and  the  testimony  of  Jesus," —  God's  command- 
ments, evidently,  in  contradistinction  to  viaii's, —  a  defini- 
tion which  implies  the  duty  of  making  God's  own  book  the 
only  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  contradistinctively  to  all 
mere  human  tradition.  \Vhether  at  home  or  abroad,  let  but 
this  its  own  originally!  scriptural  and  evangelic  spirit  still 
characterize  our  Anglican  mother  church ;  and  Ave  may 
surely  the  rather  hope  for  the  divine  blessing  upon  her. 
By  the  joint  application  of  her  Apocalyptic  Aiicjustinian 
doctrine  respecting  the  true  churchy  as  one  made  up  of 
Christ's  individual  election  of  fjrace^  chosen  from  out  of 
visible  professing  churches  through  grace  unto  salvation,  and 
her  Apocalyptic  Lutheran  doctrine  o^  justification  simply 
by  faith  in  Christ  our  Righteousness  (doctrines  alike 
prominently  set  forth  in  the  Apocalypse,  as  re-imprest  on 
men  by  express  revelation  J),  together  with  implicit  and  con- 
stant reference  to  the  written  Scripture  as  the  rule  of  fiiith, 
we  may  expect  that  she  will  detect  and  expel  from  Avithin 
her  pale,  as  Avith  touch  of  the  spear  of  Ithuriel,  e\^ery  the 
most  specious  heresy  :  and  that  so,  at  the  last  great  day  of 
Christ's  collecting  together  his  jcAvels,  the  eulogy  of  God's 
own  Zion  may  prove  to  have  continued  hers  to  the  end,  that 
"many  Avere  born  in  her,  and  that  the  Most  High  did  estab- 
lish her."§ 

And  might  not  a  Avord  be  fitly  added  also  of  solemn  prac- 
tical application  of  the   lessons  of  this  prophecy  to  other 

*  See,  in  vol.  iii.  pp.  85,  8G,  my  reference  to  ArchJeacon  Manning's 
argument  on  this  point. 

tl  say  oriijinal,  with  reference  to  the  Cranmers,  Ridleys,  Jewels,  &c., 
the  actual  founders  of  the  JCnglish  churcli  ;  not  to  tlie  Lauds  or  Bulls, 
■whom  some  would  refer  to  as  its  fathers,  of  a  later  and  very  different  gen- 
eration. 

X  See  my  vol.  i.  part  i.  ch.  vii.  §  4 ;  and  vol.  ii.  pp.  39 — 44. 

§  Psalm  87:  5. 


IN    THE    PROPHETIC    CALENDAR.  1-47 

churches,  orthodox  and  unorthodox,  among  us?  In  the 
anticipation  of  some  fearful  approaching  conflict  (if  such 
anticipation  seem  warranted  l)y  the  prophecy),  and  yet  more 
in  the  view  of  this  war  of  principle  and  of  the  nations  as 
but  a  prelude  to  the  fiery  judgments  that  are  to  accompany 
the  Lord's  own  coming,  do  we  not  see  motives  preeminently 
cogent  for  union  amoui'  all  that  love  the  Lord  Jesus  in  sin- 
cerity  ?  And  does  it  not  appear  lameutable  that,  whether 
from  political  or  ecclesiastical  differences  of  opinion,  there 
should  be  cherished  by  any  such  in  the  Protcstdiit  dissenf- 
iii<j  bodies  a  feeling  of  bitterness  against  our  Anglican 
church ;  a  churcli  which  they  yet  allow  to  be  in  its  duc- 
triues  and  profession  of  faith  eminently  scriptural  and 
evangelic  :  especially  considering  that  their  supposition  of 
Ciirist's  declaration.  "  j\Iy  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world," 
militating  against  a  national  established  church,  depends  on 
an  inference  from  that  text  very  questionable;*  and,  indeed, 

*  What  h;is  pust  in  o>ir  own  clinvch  since  the  publication  of  my  first 
edition,  renders  the  right  view  of  this  liimous  text,  Jolin  18  :  30,  "  My 
kingdom  is  not  of  tllis  world  "  (i,  ^um'/.du  j,  fi/i;  nvx  fnrir  tx  rov  y.anitov 
iw  lot),  more  important  tlian  ever.  Hence  a  brief  discussion  of  it  m.ay 
be  not  inappropriate,  especially  as  one  connected  with,  and  supplemental 
to,  my  notice  of  Christ's  kingdom,  p.  18U,  in  the  chapter  on  the  Millen- 
nium. 

And  with  a  view  to  this,  it  seems  essential  that  we  consider  it  iu  the 
light  not  only  of  its  immediate  context,  but  .also  of  that  larger  context  of 
Scripture  (alike  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament),  in  which  .Mvsxiah^s 
kiny.lom,  ciMc^l  also  the  lci'i(;(lom  of  God  or  kingdom,  of  heaven,*  is  a 
perpetually  recurring  topic. 

Now,  the  Old  Testament  prophecies,  .alike  those  of  David, t  Isaiah, t 
Daniel,  and  others,  foreshadowed  tliis  kingdom  as  one  that  would  appear 
under  two  distinct  phases  ;  a  primary  one  of  imjierfection  and  opposition, 
a.  final  one  of  triumphant  and  universal  establishment  over  all  error  and 
all  opposition.  More  especially,  for  e.Kamiile,  in  Daniel's  famous  first 
prophecy  there  were  figured  distinctively  tiie  regnnni  lapidis  and  tiie 
reynnm  montis  :^  — the  /jri»i(n\i/ humbler  state  of  Messiah's  kingdom, 
as  a  stone  cut  out  without  hands  (the  divine  temple's  destined  corner- 
stone) ;l|  and  its  ullima'e  triumphant  state,  after  shivering  the  world's 
great  ini.age  to  pieces,  and  as  a  mountain  (the  mountain  of  the  Lord's 

*Iii  St.  Matthew  we  fiiul  it  generally  called  tlic  khif/dom  of  heaven,  in  St.  Mark  and 
St.  Luke  the  kingdom  of  Goti. 

t  K.  p.  Ps.  2,  h.  t  E.  ff.  Isa.  53. 

^  Uaii.  2  :  34,  35.     I  use  Mede's  well  known  Latin  dcsignatives. 

U  Matt.  21 :  42  ;  Luke  20  :  17.  In  what  our  Lord  adds,  as  n.corded  both  by  St.  Mat- 
tliew  and  St.  Luke,  "On  whomsoever  it  shall  fall  ).ixin:aii  uiror,"  we  have,  I  think, 
a  very  interesting  connectini;  link  between  D<wid\i  projihecy  about  the  corner-stone 
(Ps.  lis  :  22  ;  "The  stone  which  the  builders  rejected,"  &c.),  here  quoted  by  Christ,  and 
Daniel's  about  the  im.ifre-smitini:  stone.  For  ?.i>cii};nti  is  not  exactly  rendered  in 
our  translation,  "  it  shall  ijrind  him  to  powder.^*    It  should  rather  be,  "  it  shall  reduce 


148  OUK   PHESENT    POSITION 

unless  my  solution  of  the  vision  of  Apoc.  10,  11  can  be  re- 
futed, that  the  establishment  of  the  Anglican,  as  well  as  of 

house,*  I  suppose),  filling  with  its  glory  the  whole  earth.  So  too  this 
twofold  state  aud  phase  of  Jesus  Christ's  kingdom  was  prominently  set 
forth  by  Christ  himself  aud  his  apostles  in  the  New  Testament.  The  first 
was  set  forth  as  having  commencement  from  after  the  King's  presentation 
of  himself  in  human  form  on  earth,  z-ejection  by  the  master-builders  in 
Israel,  and  consequent  judicial  suti'ering,  though  only  as  man's  redemp- 
tion-price from  out  of  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  with  free  and  open  en- 
trance thenceforth  into  his  own  kingdom  of  light  and  holiness  ;t  then 
absenting  himself  from  earth  for  a  while,  with  a  view  to  receive  from  his 
Father  investiture  of  the  kingdom  ;t  and  to  prepare  his  people  for  it,  as 
well  as  it  for  his  people.§  AVhich  preparatory  state  of  the  kingdom  is 
described  as  including  its  pi'oclamation  over  the  world  ;  appointed  her- 
alds II  being  chai-ged  with  invitation  from  the  King  to  all  to  enter  it 
(with  the  foreseen  result,  however,  of  a  promiscuous  gathering  of  bad 
and  good,  false  as  well  as  true)  :  as  in  the  seed- scattering  and  net-throw- 
ing of  the  parable  :*X  and  as  including  also  among  its  characteristics  a 
provision  fur  the  meet  spiritual  education,  support,  and  nourishment  of 
all  its  true  members  ;  while  still  sojourners,  far  away  from  the  King  and 
kingdom  of  their  hearts,  in  a  world  under  the  dominion  of  their  King's 
and  their  own  great  enemy,  the  Evil  One.**  The  second  state  and  phase 
described  is  that  of  its  manifestation  in  heavenly  power  and  majesty,  so 
as  prefigured  at  the  transfiguration  ;tt  and  establishment  on  the  ruins  of 
Antichrist's  kingdom,:}::}:  aud  of  each  other  dominion  allied  with  the 
Prince  of  darkness.  It  is  this  latter  for  which  Christ  bids  us  i^ray  inces- 
santly, "  Thy  kingdom  come  !  "  And  it  is  to  be  ushered  iu  by  the  King's 
own  visible  return  in  glory  ;  the  retinue  of  all  his  faithful  saints  and  sub- 
jects of  every  age  rising  to  attend  him,  in  reflected  lustre  like  as  of  the 
sun,  and  to  the  exclusion  of  each  and  every  one  of  the  insincere  and 
false.  §§  Not,  however,  in  their  prior  mortal  state  ;  the  kingdom  being 
that  which  even  the  saints  themselves  in  flesh  and  blood  cannot  inherit.  II II 
But,  with  a  view  to  their  entrance  on  which,  the  new  robing  of  incorrup- 
tion  is  provided  for  them,  and  the  world  itself  to  be  made  a  new  world 
whei-ein  dwelleth  righteousness. IT  IT 

Conformably  with  all  this,  the  text  under  discussion,  "  My  kingdom  is 
not  of  this  world,"  is,  I  conceive,  to  be  explained  as  spoken  by  Christ 
to  Pilate  :  1st,  with  reference  to  the  principle  of  its  constilulioa  ;  as 
neither  having  for  its  object  the  grandeurs,  dignities,  or  secular  suprem- 

him  to  dust,  like  as  of  winnowed  chaff  from  the  tlireshing-floor."  The  similarity  of 
which  to  Dan.  2  :  35  is  so  evident  and  stnkin<<  that  1  canimt  think  it  unintended  :  "The 
Btone  smote  the  image  upon  his  feet  of  iron  aud  clay  ;  and  tlien  was  tlie  iron,  the  clay, 
the  brass,  the  silver,  and  the  gold  broken  to  jiieoes  together,  an<l  became  like  the  chaff 
of  the  summer  Ihreshinij-jloor  ;  and  tlie  wind  carried  them  away."  Tlie  Greek  word 
is  the  self-same  tliat  is  used  in  Dan.  2,  in  the  Se})tuagint :  ).iy.f.itiati  y.ai  Xtinvni 
nuauc  ru:  liuni/.siu:, 

*  Is.  2  :  2  ;  Mic.  4  :  1.     Compare  Apoc.  21  :10. 

t  Col.  1 :  13,  U.  jUikel9:12.  §  John  14:  2. 

11  Matt.  4:  23;  Acts  2S  :  31,  &c.  I  need  hardly  observe  that  ^/louarrfir  usually 
rendered  io  preacli,  is  literally  to  jiroc.laim  as  a  herald. 

IT  Matt.  13  :   24,  47.     Seep.'lSO.  **  IJohn  5  :   19. 

It  Mark  9  :  1  ;  "There  be  some  standing  here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they 
see  the  kinijdom  of  God  come  ivitk  poner.  And  after  si.x  days  Jesus  tuketh  Peter 
and  James  and  John  .  .  up  into  an  high  mountain  apart,  and  was  transfigured  before 
tliem,"  &c.     Compare  2  I'ct.  1  :  10—18.  ++  Dan.  2  :  44  ;  7  :  26,  27. 

^§  1  ThciiS.  4  :  IB,  17  ;  Matt.  25  :  31,34  ;  13:  41—43. 

111!  1  Cor.  15:  50.  tlTT  2  Pet.  3:  13. 


IN  THE  rROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         149 

the  German  and  other  reformed  churches  of  the  16th  cen- 
tury, seems  expressly  noted  in  the  Apocalyptic  figurations 
as  the  Lord's  own  doing.*  The  same  as  to  the  Scotch  Free 
church,  in  its  relation  to  the  National  church  of  Scotland. 
For  if  the  perfect  healing  of  the  breach  be  hopeless,  that 
has  been  caused  by  the  lamented  secession  from  the  latter 
of  so  large  and  influential  a  body  of  its  members,  inclusive 
of  many  of  its  most  eminent  and  excellent  ministers,  it 
should  surely  be  remembered  how  small  the  grounds  of  sep- 

acy  of  tlie  kingdoms  of  this  world,  nor  involvinsc  disobedience  or  violiv 
tion  of  allegiance  in  secular  matters  to  the  earthly  sovereign,*  but  only 
vindicating  to  itself  the  empire  of  the  heart  :  -dly,  in  respect  of  its  conslit- 
vency,  as  including  those  only  who  in  heart  "are  of  the  truth,"  in 
contrast  with  a  world  of  which  he  had  tlic  night  before  said,  that  "  the 
Spirit  of  truth  was  what  the  world  could  not  receive  ;  "t  its  members 
being  thus  "  not  of  the  worM,  even  as  Christ  was  not  of  the  world  :" 
odly,  in  respect  of  Ihc  mode  of  its  ■prop'igalion  and  advancement,  as  uot 
by  force  or  the  sword,  like  this  world's  kingiloms  ;  "  else  would  my  ser- 
vants fight  :"  4thly,  in  respect  of  the  time  of  its  proper  manifestation  and 
eslaldifhmenf ;  as  not  that  of  the  existence  of  the  woi'ld  that  now  is,  but 
of  the  world  to  come, J  at  the  end  of  the  present  age  ;§  in  other  words, 
of  the  regeneration,  or  new  creation,  when  the  Son  of  Man  shall  sit  on 
the  tlirone  of  his  glory, ||  an>l  there  shall  be  the  new  heaven  and  new 
earth,  spoken  of  by  Isaiah  and  St.  Petcr.lT 

Supposing  which  explanation  of  the  text  correct,  it  seems,  although  what 
might  be  called  a  decidedly  spiritual  explanation,  yet  to  involve  no  pre- 
cept or  argument  against  a  national  establishment  of  the  orthodox  faith. 
For  the  rich  and  nobles  and  kings  are  no  more  excluded  from  the  offer  of  a 
part  in  Christ's  kingdom  than  the  ignoblcand  the  poor.  And  in  case  of  their 
accepting  the  otter,  and  becoming  members  of  it,  they  are  surely  as  much 
bouml  as  any  others  to  promote  the  interests  of  tlie  kingdom,  by  such 
legitimate  means  as  God  may  have  put  within  their  power  :  including 
especially,  on  the  part  of  Christian  kings,  the  provision  of  a  gospel  min- 
istry and  an  evangelic  worship,  throughout  the  countries  rule<l  by  them, 
after  the  examples  of  the  ancient  .Jewish  princes,  Ilczekiah  and  Josiah. 
For  example,  can  the  queen  of  the  Sandwicli  Islands  have  violated  any 
principle  of  duty  involved  in  Christ's  declaration  to  Pilate,  ^  making  pro- 
vision for  them  in  her  <listnnt  territory  ?  Or,  our  pious  king  Edward,  in 
so  acting  at  the  Reformation  in  England  ?  Or,  in  quite  another  way, 
Constantine,  in  judging  on  tiie  Donati.stic  controversy  submitted  him  ? 

*  See  my  vol.  ii.  pp.  184 — I'.'O,  on  the '^n/^-iVnc,  or  rod  of  authority, 
given  by  the  -tVngel  to  St.  John,  for  measuring  and  re-forming  the  symbolic 
temple.** 

•  Compare  Rom.  13:   1;  1  Pet.  2:   1.1,17. 

t.Iohn  14:  17.  J  ' fl  oizofutii;  »y  fif?.Xovaa,  Hcb.  2  :  5. 

i  Matt.  13:39.  '  '  ||  Matt.  19 :  28- 

1i  See  my  notices  of  the  new  heaven  and  earth  in  the  two  preceding  chapters.  Compare 
Justin  M.irtyr,  Apol.  2:  'Kiinc  texnvamrte  flxftiXnav  nooaSnxotrTu:  ijia?  axQi- 
Tin;  Kif'ncKTnny  f.iyiiv  ijuti  i'.iii?.t-(faTf,  ijiv'f  r»;i  fitra  (^tov  ?.iyovTv)V. 

**This,  tny  view  of  the  \iitSSo<:  has  been  the  subject  of  some  controversy,  especially 
with  Dr.  Candlish.  But,  as  now  in  my  third  and  fourth  editions  more  fully  and  care- 
fully explained,  it  is  that  to  wliich  I  believe  Dr.  C.  would  not  object. 

13* 


150  OUR    PRESENT   POSITION 

avation  of  hearty  in  comparison  with  those  of  union :  con- 
sidering that  it  is  not  on  questions  involving  the  essentials 
of  Christian  faith  that  the  disruption  has  arisen,  but  on 
questions  of  ecclesiastical  constitution  and  government, 
never  perfectly  to  be  resolved  in  a  -world  -where  all  is  imper- 
fect,* and  on  -which  sincere  Christians  may  reasonably  hold 
different  opinions ;  considering,  further,  that  the  objected 
E}'astianis7n  of  the  established  church  f  can  scarce  be 
viewed,  even  by  the  seceders,  as  any  subject  of  Divine  dis- 
approbation ;  and  indeed,  in  so  far  as  it  attached  to  the  pri- 
mary constitutions  of  the  German  or  British  churches  of 

*  I  mean  in  regard  of  the  chief  disputcil  points  on  which  the  disruption 
arose  :  especially  those  of  patronai/e,  as  distinguished  from  the  popular  call 
or  nomination,  as  a  prerequisite  to  ordination  to  a  benefice  ;  and  that  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  highest  civil  over  the  Iriijliest  ecclesiastical  couvt,in  ques- 
tions involving  conjointly  both  civil  and  ecclesiastical  rights.  As  regards 
the  former,  is  not  the  doubt  both  permissible  and  reasonable  ■whether 
popular  call  may  not  be  to  the  full  as  liable  to  abuse  as  lay  patronage  ? 
As  regards  the  latter,  has  not  the  supremacy  of  the  civil  court  in  Eng- 
land jjeen  on  more  than  one  important  occasion  within  the  last  century  a 
defence,  not  only  of  the  beneficed  clergy  personally,  but  even  of  the  truth 
itself,  against  the  abuse  of  the  episcopal  autliority  ? 

t  Erastus  "was  a  German  divine  of  the  IGth  century.  Neal,  in  his 
History  of  the  Puritans,  vol.  ii.  Pref.  p.  9,  after  observing  that  the  mem- 
bers of  Parliament,  during  the  civil  -war,  -were  almost  all  of  the  princi- 
ples of  Erastus,  -who  maintained  that  Christ  and  his  apostles  had  pre- 
scribed no  particular  form  of  discipline  for  his  chui'ch,  but  had  left  it  in 
the  hands  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  appoint  such  particular  forms  of 
church  government  as  might  most  subserve  the  welfare  of  the  common- 
■wealth,  adds,  "  These  were  the  sentiments  of  the  Reformers,  from 
Cranmer  down  to  Bancroft."  This  last  statement,  however,  needs  the 
important  modification  of  the  magistrate  being  supposed  to  do  nothing 
contrary  to  the  Bible. 

With  regai-d  to  Erastus's  doctrine,  it  may  be  useful  further  to  give 
Archbishop  Wijateley's  explanation  of  Erastianism.  "  Erastianism  has 
always  been  considered  as  consisting  in  making  the  State, —  as  such, —  the 
civil  magistrate  by  virtue  of  his  ojfice,  prescribe  to  the  people  what  they 
shall  believe,  and  how  worship  God."  (Kingdom  of  Christ,  p.  266.) 
Supposing  which  to  be  correct,  then  all  cliarge  of  Erastianism.  against 
the  Scotch  established  church  will  be  evidently  incorrect  ;  seeing  that 
the  state  has  not  attempted  to  impose  new  Articles  of  belief  on  the 
church.  Nor  indeed  did  the  seceders,  in  consequence  of  such  Erastian 
pretensions,  leave  the  Establishment.*  Dr.  Candlish,  however,  asserts 
(Letters  on  Hora3,  p.  120),  that  "  neither  articles  of  belief,  nor  manner 
of  worship,  came  into  question  at  all  in  the  Erastian  controversy,  prop- 

*  Let  me  contrast  the  case  of  the  Ministres  demissionaires,  now  Ministers  of  the  Free 
Clmrcli  in  the  Canton  de  Vaud.  Here  the  first  grand  step  of  the  secular  government 
towards  the  oppression  of  the  A'audois  church  was  tlie  abohtion  by  it,  in  1839,  at  one  fell 
Bwoop,  and  altogether  by  its  own  authority,  of  the  Helvetic  Confession  of  Faith. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         151 

the  Reformation  (supposing  my  explanation  correct  of  the 
symbol  of  St.  John's  measuring  the  temple),  would  seem 
to  have  had  Apocalyptic  testimony  to  its  being  that  which 
had  the  Covenant  Angel's  own  approving  regard  and  direc- 
tion;* considering  too  that  as  regards  Christ's  headship 
and  kitiffship  o\ev  his  church,  the  doctrine,  in  the  highest  and 
most  scriptural  sense  of  those  phrases, f  nay,  and  even  in  a 

erly  so  calleil :"  and  "  that  it  was  on  the  lawfulness,  according  to  Scrip- 
ture and  right  reason,  of  tlie  civil  magistrate's  jurisdiction  in  the  exercise 
of  church  discipline,  particularly  in  the  acts  of  excommunication,  and 
of  admitting  to  mcmhe7:thip  and  olfice  in  the  church,  that  the  dispute 
about  which  Erastus  was  concerned  really  turned." 

Atany  rateit  must  be  allowed  thtit  Erastianism  is  a  just  cause  of 
reproach  in  so  far  only  as  it  can  be  proved  to  be  anti-scriptural.  And 
in  such  a  case  as  the  famous  Marnoch  and  Strathbogic  one,  where  the  two 
jurisdictions  met  and  conflicted,  was  God's  revealed  will  so  clear  as  that  a 
Christian  man,  wishing  to  judge  by  that  rule,  might  not  honestly  differ 
from  the  opinion  of  the  majority  in  the  General  Assembly,  who  subse- 
quently secede<l  from  the  established  church  ? 

*  See  Note  *  p.  14'J  supra.  I  h.ave  said  above,  "  in  so  far  as  the  ob- 
jected Erastianism  attached  also  the  priinary  constitutions  of  the  German 
or  other  churches  of  the  Reformation,"  because  it  is  to  these  that  the 
Apocalyptic  symbol  (if  I  am  correct)  relates  ;  not  to  such  changes  in  their 
ecclesiastical  constitutions  as  may  have  been  made  at  any  later  epoch.  ^ 
Of  course,  too,  my  argument  from  the  Apocal^-ptic  symbol  has  reference 
only  to  main  points  iu  the  constitution  of  the  Reformed  churches,  not  to 
details. 

t  As  the  point  is  of  importance,  it  may  be  well  to  subjoin,  with  a  view 
to  a  right  judgment  on  the  scriptural  sense  of  this  phrase,  all  the  pas- 
sages in  the  New  Testament  which  speak  of  Christ's  headship  over  the 
church  :  —  and  all,  I  believe,  in  regard  to  the  church  in  its  most  spiritual 
sense. 

First,  then,  we  have  Christ  figured  to  us  as  the  head  corner-stone  of  his 
temple,  the  church.  So  in  JIatt.  21  :  42,  and  the  parallel  passages  in  Mark 
and  Luke.  But  of  what  temple  or  church  ?  The  visible  earthly  society 
so  called,  including  both  f  ilse  and  true  members  ;  or  that  constituted  of 
the  true  only  ?  St.  Peter  (1  Pet.  2  :  4 — G)  defines  it  distinctly  as  the  lattei*. 
*'  To  whom  coming,  as  unto  a  living  stone,  disallowed  of  men,  but  chosen 
of  God  and  precious,  ye  also,  as  living  stones,  arc  built  up  a  spiritual 
house,"  &.C.:  as  it  is  said  in  the  Scripture,  "  I  lay  in  Zion  a  chief  corner- 
stone, .  .  •  and,  The  stone  which  tlie  builders  disallowed,  the  same  is 
made  the  head  of  the  corner." 

Tlien,  passing  over  1  Cor.  11  :  3,  where  it  is  said  o{ individual  Chris- 
tians that  "  the  head  of  the  woman  is  the  man,  and  the  head  of  the  man 
is  dirist,"  a  passage,  therefore,  not  directly  bearing  on  the  point  now  in 
question,  we  come  to  the  following  five  apposite  and  fiimous  pi\fisages  in 
St.  Paul's  Epistles  to  the  Ephcsians  and  Coiossians.  1.  Eph.  1 :  22;  "And 
God  gave  him  to  be  the  head  over  all  things  to  the  church;  which  is  his 
body,  the  fulness  of  him  that  filleth  all  in  all."  2.  Eph.  4  :  11 — 15;  "And 
he  gave  some  apostles,  and  some  prophets,  and  some  evangelists,  and 
Bome  pastors  and  teachers,  for  the  perfecting  of  the  saints,  for  the  work 


152  OUR    rilESKNT    POSITION 

lower  and  less  purely  scriptural  sense  of  them,  may  be  con- 
sidered,   I   presume,  to    be    held   by   the  members  of  the 

of  the  ministry,  for  the  edifying  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  till  we  all  come  in 
the  unity  of  the  fiith,  and  of  the  Ivnowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  nnto  a 
perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ; 
that,  .  .  speaking  the  truth  in  love,  we  may  grow  up  into  him  in  all 
things,  which  is  the  head,  even  Christ:  from  whom  the  whole  body,  fitly 
joined  together,  .  .  .  maketli  increase  of  the  body  unto  the  edifying  of 
itself  in  love."  3.  Eph.  5  :  23,  &c. ;  "The  husband  is  the  head  of  the 
wite,  as  Christ  is  the  head  of  the  church.  .  .  And  he  loved  the  church, 
and  gave  himself  for  it,  that  he  might  present  it  to  himself  a  glorious 
church,  not  having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing;  but  that  it  should 
be  holy  and  without  blemish."  4.  Col.  1  :  18;  "And  he  is  the  head  of  liis 
body,  the  church."  5.  Col.  2  :  18, 19;  "  Let  no  man  beguile  you  of  your 
reward,  by  a  voluntary  humility  and  worshipping  of  angels,  intruding 
into  those  things  whicli  he  hath  not  seen,  .  .  and  not  holdinff  the  head; 
from  which  all  the  body,  by  joints  and  bands  having  nourishment  minis- 
tered, and  knit  together,  increascth  with  the  increase  of  God." 

In  all  which  passages,  especially  as  compared  together  and  mutually 
illustrated  by  eacli  other,  it  seems  to  me  clear  that  the  true  church  is 
meant  always  and  distinctively,  as  that  of  which  Christ  is  head.  I  am 
surprised  that  Dr.  Candlish  (Letters,  pp.  20,  27,  123),  while  fully  admit- 
ting, nay,  contending,  that  "  holding  the  head  "  is  said  in  Col.  2  :  19  dis- 
tinctively of  true  believers,  should  yet  contend  also  that  most  of  the  passages 
quoted  belong  both  to  the  true  church,  and  also  to  visible  churches,  "  out- 
standing societies  "  (including,  of  course,  both  good  and  bad),  formed  in 
-Christ's  name  :  and  especially  that  Eph.  4:11,  &c.,  has  reference  to  these 
latter;  "  If  there  be  meaning  in  words,  it  must  apply  to  a  visible  organ- 
ized society."  But  why?  Because,  says  he,  the  provision  specified  of 
outward  means  and  ministers  of  grace  (apostles,  prophets,  evangelists, 
&c.),  necessarily  belongs  to  a  visible,  organized  society.  But  whose  edi- 
fying is  accomplished  by  them  ?  Surely  not  that  of  mere  professors  iu  the 
church  society,  but  of  the  true  members  only.  AVhich  last,  therefore,  can 
alone,  in  the  scriptural  sense,  be  deemed  Christ's  body*  (just  as  in  Col. 
2  :  19,  where  Dr.  Candlish,  as  I  observed,  allows  it) ;  and  which  last  alone, 
consequently,  have  Christ  as  a  head;  and  grow  up  into  him  in  aU 
things,  &c.t 

As  to  the  scriptural  view  of  Christ's  kingship  in  the  church,  and  of 
those  to  whom  the  privilege  attaches  of  having  him  for  tlieir  king,  the 
most  illustrative  passage  that  I  know  is  John  18  :  37,  "  Every  one  that 
is  of  the  truth  hearetli  my  voice  :"  following,  as  it  does,  on  Christ's  saying 
that  he  was  born  to  be  a  king,  though  over  a  kingilom  not  of  this  world;  t 
and  being,  in  fiict,  his  explanation  of  the  subjects  that  would  belong  to  it. 

*  So  Augustine,  De  Doctr.  Christ,  3  :  45  ;  where,  speakin?:  of  Ticlionius'  second  inter- 
pretative principle,  De  Domini  corpore  hipartito,  as  incluiiing  both  the  true  members 
of  Christ's  lioily  anil  the  false,  Augustine  says  that  the  piirase  is  wrongly  exprest; 
because  hypocrites  and  false  professors  do  not  really  belong  to  Christ's  body  at  all.  "  Noa 
revera  Domini  corpus  est  (luoil  cum  illo  non  erit  iu  ajternum." 

t  How  strongly  Christ  is  set  forth  as  the  cfiiirclPs  head,  in  this  scriptural  sense  of  the 
phrase,  by  the  founders  of  the  Anglican  church  (which  yet  has  been  spoken  against  as 
Erastian),  will  have  been  seen  in  the  extract  from  King  Edward's  Catechism  given  a  little 
earlier. 

I  See  my  discussion  on  the  text,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,"  in  the  note  *  p. 
147,  just  before. 

Archbishop  Whateley,  in  his  well-known  work  on  the  Kingdom  of  Christ,  already 


IN    THE    PROPHETIC    CALENDAR.  153 

Scotch  established  church  as  truly  as  of  the  free  ;* — in  fine, 
that,  instead  of  that  established  church  being  an  "Egypt" 

Docs  not  St.  John  teach  us  (1  John  3  :  19,  &c.)  that  none  but  real  heart- 
believers  are  of  the  truth  '^  Does  not  Christ  state  it  (John  10  :  27)  as  the 
distinctive  of  his  own  true  sheep,  that  tlicy  hear  his  voice  ? 

*  The  Free  Church  hoUls  Christ's  headsliip  over  the  risible  church  ;  and 
this  is  an  important  principle  in  the  right  ecclesiastical  constitution  of 
Christian  communities.  So  the  Address  by  the  Convocation  to  the  peo- 
ple of  Scotland,  as  also  Dr.  Candlish's,  Mr.  Grey's,  and  Mr.  Hamilton's 
Pamphlets,  &c.  "  Christ  is  not  only  inwardly  a  spiritual  head  to  his 
mystical  church,  but  externally  a  spiritual  he.ad  to  the  politic  body  of  the 
visible  church  of  professors,  and  their  only  lawgiver:  "  a  principle  which 
the  Reply  by  the  General  Asscmbhfs  Special  Commission  to  Sir  J.  Gra- 
ham applies,  by  declaring  that  an  acknowledgtnent  of  the  right  of  a  Sec- 
ular Court  to  act  as  it  has,  is  a  repudiation  of  the  doctrine  contained  in 
the  Scotcli  Confession  of  Faith,  that  the  Lord  Jesus  is  the  only  head  of 
the  church. 

But  since  the  church  visible,  in  any  professedly  Christian  country, 
must  be  held  to  embrace  the  whole  community,  and  .lolirtiu,  people  as 
well  as  pastors,  prince  as  well  as  people,  all  in  allcigance  to  Him  whom 
tliey  in  common  profess  to  regard  as  their  King,  ought  not  the  Prince's 
subordinate  officers,  the  Judges  of  the  law  inclusive,  to  be  considerecl  as 
acting  under  the  Heavenly  King,  while  conscientiously  fulfilling  their  sev- 
eral appointed  functions;  as  truly  as  church  officers,  so  called  (in  a  nar- 
rower sense  of  the  word  church),  while  fulfilling  theirs?  Was  Sir  Jlat- 
thcw  Hale,  in  his  secular  court,  less  a  servant  and  minister  of  the  church's 
Head  and  King,  Christ  Jesus,  than  Archbishop  Laud  in  his  spiritual,  or 
rather,  ecclesia,stical  court?  So  that  the  diflerence,  on  this  point,  between 
the  Free  Church  and  both  the  English  and  Scotch  Established  Churches 
seems  to  be  still  more  narrowed.  It  strilies  me  that  this  large  view  of  the 
visible  church's  constituent  body,  and  its  various  functionaries,  h:is  been 
practically  too  much  overlooked,  on  one  side  at  least,  in  the  controversy; 
tiie  Church  and  the  State,  Clmroh  Courts  and  Secular  Courts,  being  spo- 
ken and  written  about  as  if  antagonistic,  and  the  former  only  as  under 
Clirist,  the  church's  Heail  and  King.* 

.Vnd  let  me  suggest  whether  another  misapplication  of  language  (such 
it  seems  to  me)  may  not  have  furtlier  confused  the  question,  needlessly 
widened  the  ditfcrence,  and  even  opened  what  might  be  a  door  to  serious 
error;  I  mean  the  iise  of  spiritual  for  ecclesiastical,  in  speaking  of  the 
members  of  church  courts,  in  contradistinction  to  tliose  of  secular  courts. 
Says  Mr.  Hamilton,  in  his  "  Harp  on  the  Willows,"  p.  20  (and  he  is 
only  one  among  many  that  have  used  the  same  language):    "  They  hold 

more  th.an  once  referred  to,  appears  to  me  to  have  greatly  impoverished  and  understated 
Ou-isl's  ineaniiii,'  in  this  <li-cUiration  ;  by  cxphiininjr  it  (p.  29),  wholly  or  chiefly,  as  "  the 
rcniinriiitinn  of  all  xrcutar  coercion  of  in  behalf  his  religion."  This  view  of  the 
Words  in  the  text's  latter  clause  arises  fnini  his  viewiiii;  Christ's  kingdom,  in  the  furtiier 
clause  as  moaning  only  the  erathly  visible  noriety,  called  the  church  in  its  earthly  present 
mixt  state:  for  he  says  scarce  a  word  in  his  Treatise  of  this  earthly  stale  heiiig-  one  in 
which  many  would  profess  to  attach  to  Christ's  kiopdnm  that  really  do  not,  the  tares  as 
Well  as  the  wheat;  or  of  i)iK  future  stale  as  that  in  which  alone  the  true  constituency  of 
the  kingilom  will  he  scparaied  from  the  untrue,  and  in  jierfect  union  and  glory  shine  forth 
forever.  The  different  views  from  this  of  Wicliff  and  of  the  Anglican  church  have  been 
shown  l»fore. 

*  On  this  point  let  me  hcg  the  reader's  special  attention  to  thecas<i  of  ConsUintine  judg- 
ing in  the  Donatistic  controversy,  alluded  to  \t.  148  suprd.  And  see  on  it  Mushoim  vi.  2, 
6, 4,  witlt  the  noted. 


154  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

that  God's  Israel  had  to  come  out  of,*  it  was  and  is  by  that 
evangelic  confession  of  faith  Avhich  it  holds  for  its  stand- 
ard, as  well  as  the  free  church,  a  joint  witness  and  bul- 
wark with  it  against  the  only  figurative  Egypt  of  New 
Testament  prophecy,  I  mean  Papal  Rome.f  To  the  noble 
devotedness  of  the  free  church,  since  the  disruption,  and  its 
zeal,  energy,  and  self-denial  in  carrying  out  its  many  high 
objects,  the  world  itself  bears  testimony.  But  has  not  one 
thing  been  wanting?  And  would  her  labors  be  less  holy 
or  less  blest,  if  acrimony  towards  the  church  she  has  seceded 
from  were  altogether  Ixmished  ;  and  if.  instead  of  it,  there 
was  exhibited  by  her  fii  clearer  daylight  the  holding  of  the 
fellowship  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace  ?J 

that  the  Lord  Jesus  is  the  only  head  of  the  church.  In  their  eccleaiastical 
procedure  tliey  desire  to  follow  his  will,  as  that  will  is  revealed  in  his 
■word.  They  believe  that  the  Spirit  of  God,  speaking  through  spiritual 
men,  is  the  sole  interpreter  of  that  word.  And  they  cannot  allow  ike  com- 
mandments of  men,  the  verdicts  of  secular  coiirts,  to  interpose  between 
them  and  their  heavenly  King."  It  seems  to  me  that  the  spiritual  men 
here  meant  must  be  the  members  of  the  Scotch  ecclesiastical  courts,  as 
opposed  on  the  questions  tliat  finally  caused  the  disruption,  to  the  Judges 
of  the  secular  courts  :  and  that  it  is  the  decisions  of  the  former  which  are 
characterized  as  the  voice  of  the  Spirit,  in  opposition  to  the  verdicts  of 
the  latter,  -which  are  styled  the  commandments  of  men.  Now  is  not  the 
similarity  of  this  to  Papal  language  about  councils,  held  under  Papal 
presidency,  ominous,  and  a  -warning  ?  "  Spiritiis  Sancti  testatur  praisen- 
tiam  congregatio  sacerdotum,"  said  Pope  Celestine  of  the  Ephesian  Coun- 
cil held  D.  A.  4G8  :  and  it  -\vas  deemed  fitting  that  the  seal  of  the  Coun- 
cil of  Trent  should  have  a  dove  engraved  on  it,  in  token  of  the  same  pres- 
ence of,  and  inspiration  of  the  Council  by,  the  Divine  Spirit.  (See  my 
vol.  iii.  p.  21-4.)  Ecclesiastical  men,  congregated  on  ecclesiastical  mat- 
ters, were  deemed  by  Rome  spiritual  men,  inspired  in  their  decisions  by 
God's  Spirit.  On  the  other  hand,  I  believe  that  in  the  New  Testament 
the  word  .Tiirmnanjc,  spiritual,  when  said  of  persons,  is  only  used  of 
true  Christians!  So  1  Cor.  2  :  14,  15;  3:1;  14  :  37;  Gal.  6  :  1;  1  Pet. 
2:  5.  See  especially  the  first  passage  on  the  list,  1  Cor.  2:  15;  "Tlie 
natural  man  receiveth  not  the  tilings  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  for  they  are 
foolishness  to  him :  .  .  .  but  tlie  spiritual  man  judgeth  (or  discerneth) 
all  things."  * 

*So  the  title  of  Mr.  Hamilton's  Sermon,  "Farewell  to  Egypt;  or  the 
Departure  of  the  Free  Church  out  of  the  Erastian  Establishment."  And 
other  writers  of  the  Free  Church  have  used  the  same  figure. 

tSee  my  Vol.  ii.  pp.  421,  428. 

X  I  rejoice  to  think  that  since  tliis  was  written  there  has  been  much  less 
of  acrimony,  much  more  of  Christian  kindness,  between  these  two  branches 
of  Christ's  church. t 

*  How  increasingly  important  and  neeaful  in  our  Emjlish  church  is  a  riglit  scriptural 
view  of  the  two  topics  liere  discussej,  at  tlie  time  at  whicli  I  am  revising  my  work  for 
its  fourth  edition! 

t  In  regard  to  the  passage  on  the  free  church  here  concluded,  and  what  may  seem  to 


IN  TEE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         155 

And  can  I  omit  altogether  a  word  of  affectionate  address 
and  warning  to  members  of  the  Rom'isli  church ;  should 
there  in  God's  providence  be  any  such  among  the  readers 
of  this  Commentary  ?  If  what  has  been  here  written  ap- 
pear indeed  to  l)car  the  stamp  of  God"s  own  truth  (and  I 
am  well  persuaded  that  not  all  the  learning  or  ingenuity  of 
Home  can  in  its  main  points  confute  it),  then  may  the 
Divine  S})irit  carry  home  conviction  to  them  :  and  make 
the  view  of  Gods  own  judgment,  here  fully  drawn  out  on 
the  great  questions  at  issue  between  Romanism  and  Protest- 
antism, and  the  view,  too,  which  the  prophecy  gives  us,  of 
the  probable  nearness  of  the  great  day  of  his  pul)licly  pro- 
nouncing and  acting  out  that  judgment,  to  be  like  the 
warning  cry  in  their  cars,  "  If  any  man  worship  the  Beast 
and  his  image,  and  receive  his  mark  in  his  forehead  or  in 
his  hand,  the  same  shall  drink  of  the  wine  of  the  wrath  of 
God,  and  shall  l^e  tormented  with  fire  and  lirimstone  in  the 
presence  of  the  holy  angels,  and  of  the  Lamb,  and  the 
smoke  of  their  torment  ascendeth  up  forever  :  "  *  or,  rather, 
like  that  other  kindlier  voice  from  heaven,  "  Come  out  of 
her,  my  people"  (for  many,  I  doubt  not,  of  this  character, 
through  some  delusion  or  ignorance,  are  still,  in  respect  of 
outward  communion,  in  the  Romish  church,  although  in 
spirit  not  of  \i).  "  Come  out  of  her,  my  people,  that  ye  be 
not  partakers  of  her  sins,  and  that  ye  receive  not  of  her 
plngucs;  for  her  sins  have  reached  unto  heaven."  f 

But  it  is  individHally  that  the  apj)lication  of  the  siibject 
is  most  important.  And  when  thus  personally  applied, 
need  I  say  how  unspeakably  deep  and  solemn  its  interest ! 
It  is  not  enough  that  we  belong  to  the  most  orthodox 
church,  profess  the  most  Scriptural  faith,  and  be  even  zeal- 
ous for  it  against  the  many  errors  and  heresies  of  the  day. 
The  question  is,  Are  we  of  Christ's  true  disciples,  his  "  lii- 

*  Apoc.  14  :  0—11, 
t  Apoc.  18  :  4,  5. 

many  its  too  extcmle.-l  and  e!alwrate<l  notes,  lot  me  he  permitted  to  obserre  that  this  has 
p.irtly  l)L'en  occasioned  by  a  not  unfriendly  controversy  with  Dr.  Candlish,  arising  out  of 
observations  on  tlic  free  cliunli,  less  cart-fully  made  in  my  1st  and  2d  editions,  and  expressed 
with  less  of  kindliness  towards  the  free  church  than  they  ought  to  have  Ijeen.  As  bearing 
directly,  moreover,  on  the  proat  questions  respt-ctinp  the  true  and  vixib/e  church  of 
Christ,  they  may  l)e  regarded  as  having  a  real  Ajiocalyptic  interest.  For  a  fuller  discus- 
sion of  the  subject,  I  beg  to  refer  the  reader  to  Dr.  Candlish's  Pamphlet  and  my  Reply. 


156  OUR    PRESENT    POSITION 

tie  flock, ''^  to  "svLicli  alone  tlic  Father  has  given  promise  of 
the  kingdom  ?  *  Have  we  then  the  evidence  of  belonging 
to  it  ?  Have  we  received  the  Apocalyptically  noted  mark 
and  seal  of  God's  Holy  Spirit ;  and  the  inward  light,  life, 
and  spirit  of  holiness  and  adoption  which  He  alone  can 
give  ?  t  Is  our  faith  fixed  on  Christ  as  the  sun  of  right- 
eousness ?  J  Do  we  hold  to  the  written  word  in  life,  as  Avell 
as  in  doctrine  ?  §  Do  we  witness  for  Christ  in  an  apostate 
world  ;  as  in  the  world,  but  not  of  the  world  ?  Do  we 
seek  to  follow  the  Lamb  \Yithersoever  he  goeth,  ||  in  holiness, 
spiritual  mindedness,  benevolence,  self-denial,  and  patient 
perseverance  in  well-doing,  through  evil  report  as  well  as 
good  report?  Do  we  seek  to  improve  our  several  talents 
for  him,  as  those  that  must  soon  give  account?  II  Does  our 
charity  al^ound  to  Christ" s  flock  and  people  ?  **  Is  the 
lamp  of  faith  trimmed,  and  its  light  kept  burning  within  us, 
as  by  men  that  watch  for  their  Lord  ?  f  f  Is  the  thought  of 
his  coming  precious  to  us  ?  Do  we  look  for,  and  love,  the 
thought  of  his  appearing  ?  JJ  Doubtless  there  are  many 
who  can  answer  these  questions  in  the  affirmative.  And 
happy  are  they.  But  there  are  many  more,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  with  whom  misgivings  will  arise  in  the  conscience, 
as  they  reflect  upon  them.  Alas  !  who  can  doubt  the  prev- 
alence, in  -svhat  has  been  not  inaptly  called  "  the  religious 
world,"  of  much  of  false  profession;  much  of  the  Laodi- 
cean spirit  of  lukewarmness,  self-conceit,  religious  pride, 
earthly-mindedness ;  much  of  the  characteristic  deadness  of 
the  church  of  Sardis,  "  having  a  name  to  live,  but  being 
dead  ?"<§»§  With  all  such,  what  cause  is  there,  in  contem- 
plation of  the  coming  future,  for  humiliation,  holy  fear, 
repentance  !     Blessed  be  God,  though  the  acceptable  time 

*  Luke  12:  32. 

t  Apoc.  7.     See  my  chapter  on  this  Sealing  Vision. 

t  Apoc.  10  :  1. 

§  Apoc.  12:  17,  &c. 

II  Apoc.  14  :  4.  IT  Matt.  25  :  14.  oic.     1  Cor.  4  :  2. 

**  Matt.  25  :  85,  &c. 

tt  Matt.  25  :  7.     Luke  12  :  35. 

%X  2  Peter  3  :  12.     2  Tim.  4:  8. 

§§  I  know  not  any  more  searching  passages  in  Holy  Scripture,  for  self- 
application  on  this  great  question,  than  those  suggested  by  Christ's 
Epistles  to  the  Seven  Churches  of  Asia. 


IN  THE  PROPHETIC  CALENDAR.         157 


remaining  be  short,  it  is  not  ended.  Though  the  Master 
seems  to  be  on  the  point  of  rising,  he  has  not  as  yet  actu- 
ally risen  and  shut  to  tlie  door.  *  Not  only  is  the  proba- 
tionary period  of  permitted  evil  as  well  as  good  prolonged, 
as  it  is  Avritten,  "  lie  that  is  unjust  let  him  be  unjust  still, 
and  he  that  is  holy  let  him  be  holy  still,""  f  but  the  voice 
of  mercy  and  love  is  also  yet  to  be  heard,  inviting  sinners 
to  salvation  :  "  The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say,  Come;  and 
let  him  that  is  athirst  come  ;  and  whosoever  -will,  let  him 
take  of  the  water  of  life  freely."  J 

For  himself  (if  such  personal  allusion  be  permitted  him), 
the  author  cannot  but  recollect  that  awful  declaration  by 
Christ,  "  Many  shall  say  to  me  in  that  day.  Lord,  Lord, 
have  we  not  prophesied  in  thy  name "?  and  I  will  say  unto 
them,  I  never  knew  you, "•§<  as  one  that  ought  to  suggest 
to  him  very  solemn  matter  for  self-examination  and  fear. 
It  is  one  thing  intellectually  and  historically  to  search  out 
Scripture  truth ;  anotiicr,  and  very  different,  experiment- 
ally to  know  and  feel  it.  The  foiincr  he  has  done,  accord- 
ing to  his  ability,  without  grudging  of  time  or  trouble  :  but 
to  himself  of  what  avail,  if  ihc  la f/er  be  wanting?  Under 
this  feeling  he  will  venture  to  address  to  every  Christian 
reader  tliis  one  parting  request :  that  if,  from  the  explana- 
tion of  the  Apocalyptic  Book  in  the  present  Commentary, 
tliey  may  have  received  any  spiritual  light,  comfort,  or 
edification,  then  they  will  not  refuse  to  make  requital  by 
prayer  earnest  and  personal  for  him,  that  he  may  not  fall 
under  the  condemnation  just  spoken  of;  nor,  having 
preached  to  others,  be  found  in  that  day  of  trial  himself  a 
castaway.  At  this  present  closing  crisis  of  the  world, 
alike  in  the  evidence  of  prophecy,  in  the  signs  of  the  times, 
in  the  general  agitation  of  Christendom,  and  in  the  in- 
creased and  increasing  expectancy  of  Ilim  by  his  people,  the 
Saviour's  voice  seems  to  be  heard,  distinct  and  clear  as  per- 
haps never  l)efore,  "  Surely  I  come  quickly."  God  grant 
that  it  may  be  the  privilege  of   both    reader   and   writer, 

*  Luke  13  :  25. 

t  Apoc. '2'2  :  IL     Such  I  conceive  Tvith  Vitringa  to  be  the  meaning  of 
this  controverted  text. 
I  Apoc.  22:  17. 
§  Matt.  7  :  22. 

14 


158  OUR    TRESEXT    POSITION. 

"whether  summoned  to  meet  him  by  death,  or  by  the  bright- 
ness of  his  own  personal  advent,  to  be  enabled  each  one  to 
answer  the  summons  with  the  inmost  soul's  welcome, 
"Amen!  even  so !  come,  Lord  Jesus!" 


THE  AGE  OF  THE   WORLD. 


Note.  On  page  112,  Mr.  Elliott  makes  reference  to  Mr.  Clinton's 
Scripture  Chronology,  and  also  to  a  fly-leaf  containing  a  Tabular  Scheme, 
drawn  up  by  the  Rev.  JNIr.  Bowen.  Instead  of  inserting  the  fly-leaf  of 
Mr.  Elliott,  we  have  prepared  and  interpolated  on  pages  113,  114,  and 
Ho,  a  Tabular  Arrangement  of  the  schemes  of  Messrs.  Clinton,  Bowen, 
Arcl\bishop  Usher,  Dr.  Jarvis,  Dr.  Hales,  and  William  Cuningliame,  Esq., 
of  England. 

The  first  column  gives  the  length  of  the  several  periods  intervening 
between  the  creation  and  the  Vulgar  Era,  as  estimated  by  the  author  of 
this  volume. 

The  second  column  gives  the  periods  as  estimated  by  Mr.  Bowen,  and 
adopted  by  Mr.  Elliott.  He  has  undoubtedly  erred,  1st,  in  omitting  the 
interregnum  of  11  years  which  occurred  between  the  reigns  of  Amaziah 
and  Azariah,  as  will  be  seen  by  a  comparison  of  2  Chron.  14  :  23  and 
15:  1;  a"nd,  2nd,  by  reckoning  70  years,  for  the  captivity  in  Babylon, 
from  the  burning  of  the  temple  in  the  11th  year  of  Zedekiah,  to  Cyrus, 
instead  of  from  the  3d  year  of  Jehoiakim  when  Nebuchadnezzar  first 
came  against  Jerusalem,  nineteen  years  previous.  Mr.  Clinton  varies  ten 
years  from  Mr.  Bowen. 

The  fourth  column  gives '  the  chronology  of  Archbishop  Usher,  whose 
principal  error  arises  from  his  adopting  the  shorter  Hebrew  chronology  as 
based  on  the  text  in  1  Kings  0:1,  which  Mr.  Elliott  shows  to  be  erro- 
neous to  the  extent  of  100  years,  and  in  omitting  the  interregnum  *  before 
referred  to.  The  chronology  of  Dr.  Jarvis  nearly  agrees  with  that  of  Usher. 

The  chi-onology  of  Dr.  Hales  is  founded  on  that  of  Josephus,  which  he 
attempts  to  correct.  And  Mr.  Cuninghame  adopts  the  reading  of  the 
Septuagint,  instead  of  the  Hebrew  text. — American  Editor. 

*  Mr.  Jarvis  gives  the  following  reason  for  the  failure  of  former  chronologers  to  per- 
ceive this  interregnum,  viz.  : 

"When  the  three  eminent  critics,  Petavius,  Usher,  and  Marsham,  wrote, the  criticism 
of  the  Sacred  Te.\t  was  in  its  infancy.  They  could  not  proceed  upon  the  sure  basis  of 
the  collation  of  manuscripts,  wliich  shows  the  great  integrity  of  the  Hebrew  text;  and,  there- 
fore, they  were  more  willing  to  be  guided  by  conjecture  than  we  ought  to  be,  now  that  this 
integrity  is  so  well  establishe<l." — Jarvis''  Sermons,  p.  104. 

Sir.  Cunninghame  says  :  "Mr.  Clinton  simply  affirms  that  the  interregnum  is  not  to 
be  discovered  in  the  Scripture  narrative,  and  that  the  reading  of  2  Kings  15:  1  is  to  be 
reject<;d  as  corrupt.  I  answer  ....  there  is  not  a  various  reading  in  any  copy  of  the 
Uebrew  or  the  Seventy.  No  passage  of  Scripture  is  therefore  supported  by  stronger 
evidence."  —  Fulness  of  Times,  p.  193. 


VIEWS  OP  DR.  JOHN  GUMMING 

ON     THE 

PERSONAL  AND  PRE-iMILLENNIAL 
ADVENT  OF  CIIJUST. 

IN 

LKCTUKES  DELIYEUED   AT  EXETER  HALL,  LONDON,  A.  D.  1S48. 


i 


CHRIST'S   ADVENT   PRE-MILLENNIAL. 

"Blessed  and  holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in  the  first  resurrection;  on  such 
the  second  death  hath  no  power,  but  they  shall  be  priests  of  God  and  of 
Christ,  and  shall  reign  with  him  a  thousand  years."  —  Rev.  20  :  6. 

We  read  that  in  the  ]\Iillennium  there  are  thrones 
of  glorj  and  of  beauty,  and  that  on  these  thrones  of  glory 
and  of  beauty  Christ's  saints  sit  and  reign  with  him  a 
thousand  years ;  and  among  those  who  occupy  the  loftiest 
places  of  these  thrones  arc  those  "that  were  beheaded  for 
the  witness  of  Jesus,  and  for  the  word  of  God,  and  which 
had  not  worshipped  the  beast,  neither  his  image,  neither  had 
received  his  mark  upon  their  foreheads,  or  in  their  hands." 
These  are  described  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  this  book,  wlierein 
saints  that  were  martyred  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus  are 
represented  as  cr3nng  out  from  beneath  the  throne,  "How 
long,  0  Lord,  holy  and  true,  dost  thou  not  judge  and 
avenge  our  blood  on  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  ?  And 
white  robes  were  given  unto  every  one  of  them  :  and  it  was 
said  unto  them,  that  they  should  rest  yet  for  a  little  season, 
until  their  fellow-servants  also  and  their  brethren,  that 
should  be  killed  as  they  were,  should  be  fulfilled."  The 
description  of  their  joy  in  the  20th  chapter  is  the  response 
to  that  prayer  :  their  resurrection  to  rise  and  reign  with 
Christ  for  a  thousand  j^ears,  in  glory  and  joy,  and  light  and 
peace. 

Now,  here  contest  or  dispute  begins.  It  is  here  that  con- 
flicting views  come  into  play.  First,  is  the  Saviour's  advent 
to  precede  the  Millennium  during  which  he  reigns  in  person, 
or  is  his  advent  to  succeed  it  ?  Secondly,  is  this  resurrec- 
tion of  the  just,  so  frequently  alluded  to  in  Scripture,  separ- 
ate from  the  general  resurrection  proclaimed  to  take  place 
at  the  close  of  the  millennial  kingdom?  In  expressing  my 
conviction,  I  ask  you  not  to  take  my  opinions  as  if  they 
were  undisputed  :  weigh  well  and  impartially  what  I  say  ;  I 
enunciate  conclusions  to  which  I  think  fair  criticism  leads 
me,  and  will,  I  hope,  lead  you,  too  ;  namely,  that  Christ  will 
14* 


162  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

personally  cotne  prior  to  the  Millennium,  and  tliat  X\\q  first 
resurrection  precedes,  and  does  not  succeed,  that  epoch. 

These  views,  of  course,  must  not  be  taken  on  the  strength 
of  tlie  opinions  or  acceptance  of  men, —  thej  must  be  re- 
ceived or  rejected  upon  the  authority  of  the  word  of  God ; 
and  this  evening,  therefore,  I  will  submit  to  you,  first,  the 
various  opinions  entertained  upon  the  subject ;  next,  the 
grounds  on  which  I  come  to  the  conclusion  I  have  noAV  ex- 
pressed. One  circumstance,  however,  must  strike  us  at  the 
beginning  of  our  inquiry.  We  are  constantly  told  in  Scrip- 
ture that  "  we  know  not  when  Christ  comes,"  and  "  the  day 
and  the  hour  no  man  knows,"  and  we  are  told  to  be  con- 
stantly watching  and  looking  for  him.  Now,  if  it  be  true 
that  a  thousand  years  of  millennial  peace  are  to  precede 
Christ's  advent,  it  is  plain  we  shall  be  able  to  specify,  dur- 
ing any  part  of  the  INIillennium,  the  very  day,  almost  the 
very  hour,  when  Christ  will  come ;  they,  I  submit  with  all 
respect,  are  the  rash  fixers  of  dates  who  say  Christ's  advent 
is  post-millennial ;  they  leave  it  as  God's  word  has  left  it, 
in  sublime  and  significant  uncertainty,  who  bid  you  look  for 
Christ  in  the  clouds  at  any  moment,  and  anticipate  the  Mil- 
lennium as  the  bright  sunshine  that  follows,  not  precedes, 
that  risen  Sun. 

The  first  opinion  which  I  will  quote,  respecting  what  is 
called  the  resurrection  of  the  just,  and  the  nature  of  the 
millennial  reign,  was  held  by  Papias,  Justin  Martyr,  Igna- 
tius, and  Tertullian,  four  of  the  earliest  writers  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  Christian  church,  one  of  whom  has  expressed 
the  most  beautiful,  scriptural,  and  evangelical  sentiments. 
The  opinion  of  these  ancient  writers  is  as  follows :  First, 
that,  at  the  advent  of  Christ,  Antichrist  shall  finally  be  de- 
stroyed ;  next,  that  there  is  to  be  a  binding  of  Satan  and  a 
repression  of  all  the  powers  of  hell  for  a  thousand  literal 
years ;  that  the  government  of  the  earth  is  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  Christ,  and  that  his  saints  shall  be  coequal,  or 
like  to  the  angels ;  that  all  false  religion  shall  be  rooted  out ; 
the  Jews  converted,  and  restored  to  their  own  land,  and 
Jerusalem  again  become  the  sacred  metropolis  of  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  ;  and,  at  the  end  of  the  Millennium, 
these  ancient  writers  believe  that  Satan  will  be  let  loose  once 
more,  and  that  the  enemies  of  God,  somewhere  on  the  out- 


THE   ADVENT   TIIE-MILLENNIAL.  163 

skirts  of  the  earth,  represented  by  the  names  Gog  and 
Magog,  shall  make  war  against  the  people  of  God ;  that 
these  his  enemies  shall  be  totally  and  finally  destroyed; 
and  then  shall  be  the  resurrection  of  all  that  are  in  their 
graves,  the  casting  of  k^atan  into  the  lake  of  fire,  and 
the  full  and  unsuspendcd  reign  of  everlasting  life  and  glory 
and  felicity  in  heaven. 

The  second  theory  is  the  theory  held  by  a  father  no  less 
eminent  than  any  I  have  mentioned,  namely,  Augustine. 
Augustine  believes  that  the  resurrection  here  spoken  of  is 
purely  spiritual;  that  the  commencement  of  it  was  when 
Christ  came  into  the  world  to  suftbr ;  and  that  a  resurrection 
takes  place  ever  as  a  soul  is  converted  and  raised  from  the 
death  of  sin  to  the  life  of  righteousness. 

The  third  solution  is  that  held  by  Grotius  and  Ham- 
mond, and  some  other  divines  sul^sequent  to  the  Reforma- 
tion. Their  idea  is,  that  the  first  resurrection  was  purely 
ecclesiastical,  and  that  it  began  in  the  days  of  Constantino, 
when  the  church  of  Christ  was  established  by  law ;  that  the 
Apocalyptic  beast  was  not  Papal  Rome,  but  Pagan  Rome  — 
a  scries  of  assumptions  utterly  and  altogether  untenable. 

The  last  view  is  that  espoused  by  Whitby,  and  held  by 
many  other  eminent  modern  commentators.  It  is  this  :  that 
the  first  resurrection  is  not  a  resurrection  of  the  bodies,  but 
of  the  principles  and  doctrines,  and  spiritual  character  and 
life,  of  the  Christian  martyrs ;  that  the  first  resurrection  is 
to  be  partly  spiritual,  partly  national,  partly  ecclesiastical ; 
that  the  Pope  is  to  be  destroyed,  the  Jews  converted  and 
restored  to  their  own  land,  and  the  splendor  of  the  ]\Iillen- 
nium,  at  the  close  of  which  Christ  will  come,  is  to  merge  in 
the  heavenly  glory,  and  both  be  one.  These  arc  the  four 
solutions  of  this  chapter  that  have  been  offered  by  eminent 
expositors. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  first  and  last  are  the  only  two 
worthy  of  discussion.  The  two  intermediate  theories,  the 
second  by  Augustine  and  the  third  by  Grotius,  seem  utterly 
untenable.  They  are  contrary  to  the  plainest  principles  we 
have  established  before,  and  as  obviously  inconsistent  with 
fair  Biblical  interpretation,  and  I  do  not  think  it  worth 
while  to  discuss  them.  The  first  theory,  therefore,  that 
held  by  Justin  Martyr,  Ignatius,  and  TertuUian,  on  the  one 


164  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

hand,  and  the  last  theory,  or  that  adopted  by  Whitby,  and 
held  by  many  Christians  at  present,  arc  the  only  t^YO  worthy 
of  patient  and  impartial  examination. 

There  are  difficulties  connected  with  both — this  is  too 
plain.  What  subject  has  no  difficulty  ?  It  is  tlie  law  of 
God  that,  in  this  dispensation,  there  shall  be  no  truth  that 
projects  not  a  shadow  around  it :  the  leaves  of  the  tree  of 
knowledge  are  not  to  be  altogether  luminous  in  this  dispen- 
sation. In  the  better  world  those  leaves  wall  be  all  lumi- 
nous—  truth  Avill  have  no  shadow — the  Sun  of  Righteous- 
ness will  be  naked — Ave  shall  meet  with  no  difficulty — all 
will  be  so  plain,  that  he  that  runs  may  read  and  understand. 
But  while  the  first  theory  has  difficulties,  the  second  seems 
to  have  insuperable  ones. 

I  proceed  to  give  a  few  of  those  reasons  which  induce 
me  to  believe  that  the  second,  namely,  Whitby's,  is  untena- 
ble. His  argument  is  this :  the  resurrection  of  the  mar- 
tyrs, declared  in  the  twentieth  chapter,  means  the  resurrec- 
tion of  their  principles,  their  spirit,  and  their  life ;  and  he 
quotes  Ezekiel's  vision  of  the  dry  bones,  as  a  case  parallel 
and  illustrative  of  it.  The  Jews  are  nationally  dead,  and 
they  are  represented  by  bones  exceeding  many  and  exceed- 
ing dry.  The  breath  of  heaven  passes  over  them — the  bones 
are  clothed  with  sinews,  and  the  Jews  experience  a  resur- 
rection from  the  dead.  This  is  a  symbol ;  so  is  the  millen- 
nial resurrection.  "So."  says  Whitby,  "it  will  be  with  the 
first  resurrection  of  the  martyrs,  and  those  that  have  not 
the  mark  of  the  beast."  He  also  gives  another  instance — 
that  of  the  prodigal  son.  The  prodigal  was  dead,  that  is, 
spiritually ;  when  he  was  restored  to  his  father,  ho  is  pro- 
nounced to  be  alive,  that  is,  to  be  risen  from  the  dead  ;  and 
in  the  light  of  these  two  instances  he  views  the  resurrection 
of  the  martyrs  and  saints  described  in  this  chapter.  He 
has  confounded  things  that  differ.  What  looks  like  illustra- 
tion is  really  not  so.  When  we  read  of  those  resurrections 
to  which  he  has  referred,  we  likewise  read  of  deaths  corres- 
ponding to  thera ;  in  other  words,  we  judge  of  the  nature 
of  the  resurrection  by  the  nature  and  requirements  of  the 
death.  Thus,  the  death  of  the  Jews  is  shown  in  the  im- 
agery of  Ezekiel  to  have  been  national — their  resurrection, 
therefore,  must  be  necessarily  natiojial  too.     The  death  of 


THE    ADVENT    PKE-MILLENNIAL.  165 

the  prodigal  was  spiritual —  the  resurrection  of  the  prodi- 
gal Avas  necessarily  spiritual  too.  But  the  death  of  the 
martyrs  in  Hcvelation  (chap.  20)  is  pronounced  to  ])e  i)ali~ 
vidiial,  literal ;  they  -were  "  beheaded  for  the  testimony  of 
Jesus ;"'  they  were  declared  in  the  previous  chapter  to  be 
individually  slain  as  witnesses  for  and  to  the  truth  of  Jesus  ; 
and  therefore,  instead  of  Whitby's  conclusion  necessarily 
following,  it  seems  to  me  that  ours,  or  the  very  reverse,  is 
the  result  of  his  reasoning,  namely,  that  as  national  death, 
in  the  case  of  the  Jews,  implied  that  their  resurrection  would 
be  national, — as  a  sj>iritiial  death,  in  the  case  of  the  prod- 
igal, implied  that  his  resurrection  would  be  spiritual, —  so 
the  literal  death,  in  the  case  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus, 
implies  that  their  resurrection  must  be  literal  and  personal 
too. 

But  there  is  yet  another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  our 
accepting  his  interpretation.  He  says  this  resurrection 
means  the  resurrection  of  the  spirit,  that  is,  fearlessness  of 
death — fixed  constancy — and  victory  over  persecution  of 
the  martyrs.  Tliis  seems  unnatural,  if  we  suppose,  as  he 
does,  the  previous  existence  of  a  ^Millennium  of  perfect  hap- 
piness and  unsuspcnded  peace.  Ilow  shall  there  be  martyrs 
during  the  Millennium,  when  there  will  be  no  munlcrcrs  ? 
How  shall  ^ny  one  manifest  the  spirit  of  a  martyr,  when  there 
can  be  none  to  manifest  the  spirit  or  conduct  of  murderers? 
How  shall  any  sufl'er  pain,  when  there  is  no  one  to  indict  it? 
We  are  forced  to  conclude  that  the  resurrection  of  the  mar- 
tyrs signifies,  not  that  persons  will  be  raised  up  who  should 
have  the  spirit  but  not  die  the  death  of  the  martyrs,  but 
that  it  implies  the  literal  resurrection  from  the  dead  of  those 
among  others  that  died  and  sealed  their  testimony  with  their 
own  blood.  But  an  objection  to  this  interpretation  of  ours 
is  deduced  from  the  words,  "  I  saw  the  souls  of  them  that 
were  beheaded  ;"  from  which  it  is  argued  that,  as  souls  are 
s])oken  of,  it  cannot  mean  persons  ;  but  every  reader  of  the 
Bible  cannot  but  know  that  the  "  soul "  is  frequently  used  to 
describe  the  whole  man.  '•  Soul,  take  thine  ease,"  is  an 
instance  of  this ;  and  in  the  6th  chapter  of  this  book,  it  is 
said,  '•'■  the  souls  of  those  that  were  beneath  the  altar  cried, 
How  long?  " 

I  therefore  conclude  that  the    first  resurrection  is  the 


166  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

literal  resurrection  of  the  just  or  saints,  and  of  them  alone, 
to  reign  personally  with  Christ  throughout  the  thousand 
years  that  follow.  That  Christ's  advent,  at  which  this  res- 
urrection is  to  take  place,  is  to  be  pre-millennial,  I  think  is 
evident,  from  Matthew  13,  alone,  where  we  read  as  follows, 
at  ver.  24  :  "  Another  parable  put  he  forth  unto  them, 
saying,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  likened  unto  a  man  which 
sowed  good  seed  in  his  field  :  but  while  men  slept,  his  enemy 
came  and  sowed  tares  among  the  Avheat,  and  went  his  way. 
But  when  the  blade  was  sprung  up,  and  brought  forth  fruit, 
then  appeared  the  tares  also.  The  servants  of  the  house- 
holder came  and  said  unto  him,  Sir,  didst  thou  not  sow 
good  seed  in  thy  field?  from  whence  then  hath  it  tares?  He 
said  unto  them,  An  enemy  hath  done  this.  The  servants 
said  unto  him,  Wilt  thou  then  that  we  go  and  gather  them 
up?  But  he  said,  Nay,  lest  while  ye  gather  up  the  tares 
ye  root  up  the  wheat  also  :  let  both  grow  together  until  the 
harvest :  and  in  the  time  of  harvest  I  Avill  say  to  the  reap- 
ers. Gather  ye  together  first  the  tares  and  bind  them  in  bun- 
dles to  burn  them," — the  desolation  of  Antichrist  and  all 
his  followers. — "  but  gather  the  wheat  into  my  barn."    Now, 

1  infer  from  this,  that  the  wheat,  or  true  believers,  and  the 
tares,  or  apostate  and  unrigliteous,  will  grow  together  until 
the  end  of  this  dispensation  come  ;  the  tares  are  to  be  first 
consumed,  as  I  showed  you  in  a  previous  lecture,  the  wheat 
is  then  gathered  into  happiness  —  that  is,  the  saints  are  raised 
from  the  dead,  and  reign  with  Christ  a  thousand  years. 

The  next  evidence  of  this  I  will  give  you  is  from  2  Thess. 

2  :  4,  where  we  have  the  description  of  the  man  of  sin,  "  who 
opposeth  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is  called  God, 
or  that  is  worshipped ;  so  that  he,  as  God,  sitteth  in  the 
temple  of  God,  showing  that  he  is  God.  Remember  ye  not, 
that  when  I  was  yet  with  you,  I  told  you  these  things? 
And  now  ye  know  what  withholdeth  that  he  might  be  re- 
vealed in  his  time.  For  the  mystery  of  iniquity  doth 
already  work  :  only  he  who  now  letteth  will  let,  until  he  be 
taken  out  of  the  way.  And  then  shall  that  Wicked  be  re- 
vealed, whom  the  Lord  shall  consume  with  the  Spirit  of  his 
mouth" — the  wasting  of  Rome  first, — "and  destroy  with 
the  brightness  of  his  {.-laQovma'^  personal  appearance."  What 
does  this  passage  prove  ?     That  the  great  apostasy  predicted 


TUE    ADVENT    PRE-MILLENNIAL.  167 

by  St.  Paul  is  to  prevail  during  the  whole  period  from 
Christ's  first  to  his  second  advent,  and  that  this  hoary 
apostasy  is  to  be  consumed  and  utterly  destroyed  only  by 
tlie  personal  advent  and  appearance  of  the  Son  of  God. 
At  that  very  period,  the  apostle  speaks  of  "a  gathering 
together  unto  Him,'"  -which  he  calls  by  the  expression 
(f.Kui') «;(.);*,),  "  a  collection  together  unto"  Christ  of  the 
risen  saints,  when  he  comes  to  consume  and  destroy  the 
great  Papal  apostasy  by  the  brightness  of  his  coming. 

Then,  in  Luke  14  :  14,  our  Lord  speaks  of  "  the  resur- 
rection of  the  just,"  as  if  that  resurrection  were  totally  dis- 
tinct from  the  general  resurrection,  and  to  take  place  at 
Christ's  pre-millonnial  appearance.  Then,  in  Matt.  19, 
"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  that  ye  Avhich  have  followed  me.  in 
the  regeneration,  when  the  Son  of  man  shall  sit  in  the 
throne  of  his  glory,  ye  also  shall  sit  upon  twelve  thrones, 
judging  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel."  We  read  in  the  Acts 
of  the  Apostles,  of  Christ  remaining  in  heaven  "  till  the 
restitution  of  all  things,"  or  "till  He  restore  all  things : "  we 
read  in  Rom.  8,  "  that  all  creation  is  groaning  and  travail- 
ing in  pain,  waiting  for  the  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God." 
And  respecting  tliis  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God, 
we  read  in  its  definition,  "  waiting  for  the  adoption,  that  is, 
the  resurrection  of  the  body."  And  you  recollect  the  apos- 
tle says,  in  Phil.  3,  "if  by  any  means  I  might  attain  unto 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead."  On  this  last  passage  I  may 
observe,  there  is  no  doubt  all  will  be  raised  at  the  last,  or 
attain  a  resurrection.  In  this  sense,  no  man  need  uisk  to 
attain  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  l)ecause  it  is  a  matter  of 
certainty  that  all  will  attain  it.  The  apostle,  therefore, 
evidently  had  bclbre  his  eyes  i\\e  first  resurrection,  and  the 
peculiar  phraseology  he  employs  on  this  occasion  proves  it 
to  be  so  —  "  if  by  any  means  I  might  attain  (^ti)i'  litndaiuaiv 
iSv  ve/gSt')  the  resurrection  from  among  the  dead;"  just 
that  resurrection  of  which  it  is  said,  "  Blessed  and  holy  is 
he  that  hath  part  in  the  first  resurrection."* 

I  might  quote  more  texts,  but  it  would  probably  weary 
3'ou,  and,  besides,  time  will  not  permit  me  to  do  so  :  I  must 
state  briefly  the  conclusion  I  have  come  to. 

*Scbolz's  reading  is  still  more  marked  T»,'f  i%aya(iTaaiv  ri,v  tx  rtxn,r,v, 
the  resurrection,  the  one  from  among  the  dead. 


168  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

I  believe,  from  these  and  other  reasons,  that  very  soon 
Christ  uill  come  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven ;  and  that,  when 
he  comes,  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  hear  the  sound  of  the 
trumpet,  and  shall  rise  and  meet  him  in  the  air,  and  that 
they  shall  reign  with  him  —  whatever  may  be  the  special 
nature  of  that  reign  and  its  details  —  a  thousand  years;  and 
after  that  shall  be  the  general  resurrection  of  the  dead,  when 
the  rest  shall  rise  and  be  judged,  "according  to  the  deeds 
done  in  the  body." 

On  no  other  view  can  I  explain  the  language  of  Scrip- 
ture:  "As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,  so  shall  also  the 
coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be.  For,  as  in  the  days  that 
Avere  before  the  flood,  they  were  eating  and  drinking,  marry- 
ing and  giving  in  marriage,  until  the  day  that  Noah  entered 
into  the  ark,  and  knew  not  until  the  flood  came  and  took 
them  all  away ;  so  shall  also  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man 
be."  How  truly  in  keeping  with  this  is  our  Lord's  own 
statement,  "  Behold,  I  come  as  a  thief"  '  Hear  also  what 
St.  Peter  says,  in  2  Pet.  3 :  3,  4, —  "Knowing  this  first,  that 
there  shall  come  in  the  last  days  scoffers,  walking  after  their 
own  lusts,  and  saying,  Where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming? 
for  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep,  all  things  continue  as  they 
were  from  the  beginning  of  the  creation.  For  this  they 
willingly  are  ignorant  of,  that  by  the  word  of  God  the  heav- 
ens were  of  old,  and  the  earth  standing  out  of  the  Avater 
and  in  the  water  :  whereby  the  world  that  then  was,  being 
overflowed  with  water,  perished.  But  the  heavens  and  the 
earth,  which  are  now,  by  the  same  word  are  kept  in  store,  re- 
served unto  fire  against  the  day  of  judgment  and  perdition 
of  ungodly  men."  On  which  verse  I  may  note,  that  the  ex- 
pression "reserved  unto  fire"  is  literally  translated  "stored 
with"  or  "having  a  treasure"  of  fire;  and  this  criticism 
leads  me  to  remind  you  of  what  I  told  you  last  Sunday 
evening,  that  the  discovery  of  modern  c;eolon;ists  is.  that  this 
earth  was  once  liquid,  like  liquid  lava :  that  it  is  only  cooled 
down  upon  its  outer  crust,  and  that  the  interior  of  the  globe 
is  still  an  ocean  of  liquid  or  molten  fire  —  the  earthquakes 
we  feel,  the  concussions  of  its  rolling  waves — the  volcanoes, 
the  safety-valves  for  its  escape ;  and  so  the  last  discovery  of 
science  casts  its  light  upon  the  statement  of  Scripture,  and 
gives,  in  this  instance,  but  the  earnest  of  that  day  when  all 


THE    ADVENT    PRE-MILLENNIAL.  169 

science  and  all  literature  shall  combine  to  testify  "God's 
word  is  true."  "But  the  day  of  the  Lord  uill  come  as  a 
thief  in  the  night,  in  which  the  heavens  shall  pass  away  with 
a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent 
heat,  the  earth  also,  and  the  works  that  are  therein,  shall  be 
burned  up."  And  when  Christ  comes,  how  startling  shall 
be  the  hour  of  the  advent  !  The  dead  tiiat  fell  asleep  in 
Jesus,  and  have  slept  many  thousand  years,  shall  hear,  when 
He  comes,  the  approach  of  His  footfall,  and  recognize  the 
sound  of  Plis  voice,  and  shall  rise  and  meet  Him  in  the  air. 
The  living  that  are  in  Christ  shall  hear  His  approach,  too, 
and  recognize  the  tones  of  His  voice,  and  shall  rise  and  meet 
Him  and  the  risen  and  quickened  dead  in  the  air,  and  reign 
with  Him  a  thousand  years.  Abraham,  and  Noah,  and  Job, 
f^hall  hear  His  voice  in  their  silent  sepulchres,  and  join  Him 
in  the  air.  Paul,  and  Peter,  and  John,  and  Luther,  and 
Wilbcrforce,  and  Simeon  of  Cambridge,  and  Venn,  and 
Williams,  and  Chalmers,  shall  obey  His  summons  from  their 
sequestered  and  separate  tombs,  and  gather  around  their 
glorious  Lord.  One  grave  shall  cleave  in  twain,  and  its 
buried  tenantry  shall  rise  and  meet  the  Lord ;  and  the  other 
grave,  that  looks  equally  green  beside  it,  shall  fail  to  be 
pierced  by  that  sound,  or  its  dead  dust  to  be  moved.  The 
cemeteries  of  stone  and  the  monuments  of  bronze  shall  rend, 
and  the  dead  saints  that  are  there  shall  come  forth — its 
sleeping  dust  shall  be  quickened  in  every  sepulchre ;  and 
tiie  stones  of  cathedrals,  and  the  vaults  of  churches,  and  the 
green  turf,  and  the  marble  mausoleum,  shall  alike  explode, 
and  pour  forth  into  the  air  their  troops  of  awakened  dead. 
Nor  less  startling  will  be  the  scenes  that  occur  amons:  the 
living  ;  some  lamilics  shall  be  met  together  speaking  of  the 
things  of  this  world  ;  in  an  instant,  and  without  warning, 
one  shall  hear  a  sound  significant  to  his  heart  of  glory,  and 
rise  as  upon  the  lightning's  wing,  and  with  its  splendor,  and 
leave  without  a  farewell  the  rest,  that  know  not  Christ,  and 
remain  astonished  behind.  0  !  great  day  of  sepai-ation  of 
families — of  dislocation  of  households — of  severance  of 
the  dead  —  of  removal  of  the  living  —  of  astonishment  to 
the  Avorld  —  of  glory  to  the  Lord  Jesus  —  of  happiness  to 
the  saints  !  But,  you  ask,  what  shall  become  of  those  that 
are  left  behind  ?     The  earth,  having  given  up  the  silent 


170  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

dust  of  the  saints  that  sleep  beneath  it, —  and  every  living 
saint  that  lives  upon  the  earth  having  heard  His  voice,  and 
responded  to  its  call, —  then  the  fire  that  is  treasured  up, 
as  I  explained  to  you,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  earth,  shall 
burst  forth  at  ten  thousand  crevices, — "the  elements  shall 
melt  as  with  fervent  heat," — the  solid  rocks  shall  blaze  as 
if  they  "were  wax,  and  the  rivers  as  if  they  were  oil :  and 
the  weary  old  earth,  having  undergone  the  ordeal  of  the  last 
fire,  shall  regain  its  pristine  purity,  and  become  fit  for  the 
immediate  presence  of  the  descending  Saviour  and  His  risen 
saints.  The  earth  shall  be  made  new,  its  soil  restored  — 
paradise  regained.  The  deep-toned  miserere  of  humanity, 
that  has  risen  for  six  thousand  years,  shall  be  lost  in  the 
everlasting  jubilee.  There  will  be  no  tears,  no  sighs,  no 
crying,  no  storms  shall  disturb  its  calm ;  there  Avill  be  no 
decay  in  its  verdure,  no  serpent's  trail  amid  its  flowers,  but 
happiness  and  love,  and  joy  and  peace,  for  a  thousand  years, 
in  the  presence  of  Christ  and  his  saints. 

Some  say,  will  not  this  be  an  earthly  heaven  ?  My  dear 
friends,  earth  is  not  essentially  corrupt :  there  is  nothing 
sinful  in  the  clods  of  the  valley,  nor  inherently  polluted  in 
a  rose,  or  in  a  tree,  or  in  a  stone.  I  have  seen  spots  upon 
the  earth  so  beautiful,  that  if  no  clouds  of  Avinter  would 
overtake  them,  nor  the  sin  of  man  blast  them,  I  could  wish 
to  live  amid  them  forever.  Take  sin  from  the  earth — the 
fever  that  incessantly  disturbs  it  —  the  cold,  freezing  shadow 
that  creeps  over  it ;  let  my  Lord  and  my  Saviour  plant  his 
throne  upon  the  earth,  and  his  hand  Avave  its  consecration, 
and  make  it  the  presence  of  Christ,  and  Avhere  can  there 
exist  a  lovelier  spot  ?  what  fairer  land  can  man  desire  to 
live  on  ?  Would  it  not  be  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory  ? 
To  me  it  is  heaven  Avhere  Christ  is,  whether  He  be  throned 
upon  earth,  or  reigning  amid  the  splendors  of  the  sky  ;  if  I 
am  Avith  Him,  and  He  Avith  me,  I  must  enjoy  unsullied  and 
perpetual  happiness. 

I  have  thus,  then,  given  you,  not  an  elaborate  exposition 
of  the  tAventicth  chapter,  but  a  short,  and.  as  I  conceive  to 
be,  a  fair  and  honest  outline  of  its  predicted  events.  It 
does  not  become  me  to  attempt  to  play  the  prophet.  We 
are  only  fallible  expositors  of  the  Avord  of  God.  I  may 
have  formed  Avrong  conceptions  of  its  symbols.     I  may,  per- 


THE    ADVENT    PRE-MILLENXIAL.  171 

haps,  have  rashly  intruded  Avhere  angels  fear  to  tread.  I 
do  not  ask  you  to  take  my  opinion  because  it  seems  to  be 
plausible,  but  to  study  that  blessed  book,  on  the  very  thresh- 
old and  vestibule  of  which  are  Avritten  the  inspired  and 
inviting  uords,  '•  Blessed  is  he  that  readeth  and  understand- 
eth  the  things  that  arc  written  in  this  book."  If  it  be  true 
that  the  Jews  are  soon  to  be  restored, —  uithin,  as  I  think,  a 
very  few  years;''  if  it  be  true,  as  I  have  likewise  indicated, 
that  twenty  years  more  will  introduce  some  of  the  last  start- 
ling phenomena  to  which  I  have  alluded  —  for  it  is  remark- 
able that  most  propbetic  interpreters  take  the  nearest  time 
of  the  first  resurrection  to  be  A.  D.  1804.  and  the  remotest 
time  to  be  A.  D.  1885;  take  the  nearest  or  the  remot- 
est, I  conclude  that,  between  those  bounding  periods,  the 
dead  saints  w  ho  are  in  their  graves  shall  hear  the  peal  of  the 
resurrection  trumpet,  and  the  living  saints  that  are  on  earth 
shall  hear  it  too.  and  their  hearts  shall  leap  for  joy ;  and 
the  dead  in  Christ,  and  they  that  are  alive  in  Christ,  shall 
meet  the  Lord  in  the  air,  and  reign  with  Ilim  a  thousand 
years.  Great  and  solemn  crisis.  I  cannot  but  again  exclaim  ! 
One  in  a  family  shall  be  taken,  and  the  other  shall  bo  left; 
the  mother  will  be  snatched  up  to  the  Lord,  her  son 
will  be  left  to  perish  in  the  flames  !  The  husband  will  be 
left,  and  the  wife  will  be  taken.  My  dear  friends,  our  sepa- 
rations now  are  l)ut  dim  shadows  of  that  last  terrible  one. 
0  !  fithcrs,  mothers,  sisters,  brothers,  in  this  assembly,  if 
you  desire  your  ciicles  upon  earth  to  be  happy,  how  should 
you  pray  tliat  you  may  be  happy  together  throughout  eter- 
nity !  Mothers  !  if  you  wish  to  meet  your  babes  in  glory, 
teach  them  to  love  their  Saviour  now !  Sons  and  daugliters  ! 
if  you  wish  to  see  the  gray  hairs  of  your  parents  amid  the 
throng  that  surrounds  the  Lord  Jesus  pray  for  them  now  ! 
Sunday-school  teachers  !  if  you  Avould  take  those  children 
to  heaven  with  you,  and  have  them  for  the  jewels  in  your 
diadem,  teach  them  to  love  and  know  their  Saviour  now  ! 
Masters,  you  are  responsible  for  your  servants  —  servants, 
for  your  masters  —  children,  for  your  parents  —  parents, 
for  your  children  —  each  for  his  neighbor.  Let  each  pray 
and  strive,  and  spend  and  be  spent,  that  each  may  meet  the 
other  where  there  shall  be  no  separation,  no  pain,  no  sorrow, 
but  all  shall  be  one  forever  with  the  Lord. 


172  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

I  ask  you  again,  each  individually,  as  before  God.  are 
you  a  Christian  ?  My  dear  friends,  here  is  your  unhappy 
misapprehension.  When  I  bid  you  be  religious,  you  fancy 
I  am  urging  you  to  take  some  nauseous  and  unpalatable 
drug,  necessary  in  order  that  you  may  be  saved,  but  uhich 
you  would  rather  postpone  to  the  very  last  moment.  In 
beseeching  you  to  be  Christians,  I  bid  you  be  happy  :  in 
inviting  you  to  come  to  Christ,  I  invite  you  to  be  a  partaker 
of  a  joy  and  peace  ■svhich  you  have  never  tasted  before.  In 
l)idding  yovi  be  holy,  I  bid  you  cease  to  be  miserable,  and  learu 
Avhat  it  is  to  be  instantly  and  unspeakably  happy.  I  ask  you 
are  you  the  children  of  God  ?  Are  you  Christians  indeed  ? 
Do  not  leave  the  question  unsettled.  It  can  be  settled. 
You  need  not  leave  it  in  uncertainty.  The  man  whose  heart 
is  changed,  and  he  alone,  has  settled  it.  The  man  whose 
trust  is  on  the  Rock  of  ages  knows  that  he  is  so.  Examine 
yourselves.  Judge  ye.  I  speak  as  unto  reasonable  men. 
"If  any  man  be  in  Christ  he  is  a  new  creature  :  old  things 
are  passed  away,  behold  all  things  are  become  new.'' 
"  If  any  man  belie veth  not  on  him,  the  Avrath  of  God  abid- 
cth  on  him."  0  God,  grant  that  at  that  day,  and  that  hour, 
which  I  have  attempted  thus  darkly  to  describe,  we  may  be 
found  having  our  lamps  burning  and  our  loins  girt,  and 
ready  to  obey  the  Saviour's  voice,  and  to  rise  and  reign  with 
Ilim  in  glory.  He  cometh  with  clouds,  and  every  eye  shall 
sec  Him. 

"  The  Lord  shall  come,  the  earth  shall  quake, 
The  mountains  to  their  centre  shake, 
And,  -withering  from  the  vault  of  night, 
The  stars  shall  pale  their  feeble  light. 
Can  this  be  lie  who  wont  to  stray 
A  pilgrim  on  the  world's  highway. 
Oppressed  by  power,  .and  mocked  by  pride, 
The  Nazarene  !  Tlie  Crucified  ?  — 
While  sinners  in  despair  shall  call, 
Rocks,  hide  us  !  —  mountains,  on  us  fall  ! 
The  saints,  ascending  from  the  tomb. 
Shall  joyful  sing.  The  Lord  is  come." 


THE    SIGNS    OF   THE    SECOND    ADVENT.  173 


THE   SIGNS   OF  THE   SECOND   ADVENT. 

"  Behold,  I  come  as  a  thief.     Blessed   is  ho  that  watcheth,  and  kecpeth 
his  garuieuts,  lest  he  walk  naked,  and  they  see  his  shame."  —  Rev.  IG:  15. 

I  THINK  I  liave  proved  there  can  be  no  ]\Iillenniuni  upon 
earth  nntil  there  Inirst  upon  it  first  a  revelation  of  the  liglit 
of  tlic  Sun  of  Righteousness.  I  showed,  I  think,  by  te.xts 
that  are  conclusive,  that  the  IMillennium  is  to  succeed,  not 
to  precede,  the  Redeemer's  second  personal  coming,  and  thus 
to  be  the  reiicction  of  the  shining  light  of  the  manifested 
Sun  of  Righteousness.  I  adduced  the  parable  which  describes 
the  present  dispensation  of  the  church  as  being  a  mixture 
of  the  tares  and  tiie  wheat  together,  and  showed  tiiat  this 
condition  of  the  visible  church  is  to  remain  till  the  great 
harvest-man  shall  come  to  sever  the  tares  from  the  wheat ; 
to  preserve  the  one,  and  to  cast  away  and  everlastingly  con- 
sume the  other.  I  proved  that  the  advent  of  Christ,  from 
the  chronological  views  which  we  have  endeavored  to  establish 
in  expounding  the  Apocalypse,  must  be  very  near ;  and  1 
showed  you  the  nature  of  that  advent,  lie  will  come,  like 
the  lightning,  unexpected  on  a  world  that  looks  not  for  him. 
"As  it  was  in  the  days  of  Noah,  so  shall  it  be  also  in  the 
day  when  the  Son  of  man  cometh.  They  were  eating  and 
drinking,  marrying  and  giving  in  marriage,  until  the  day 
that  Noah  entered  into  the  ark,  and  knew  not  until  the 
flood  came  and  took  them  all  away."  And  again,  it  is 
written,  "  When  the  Son  of  man  cometh,  shall  he  find  faith 
on  the  earth  ?  "  And  again,  "  I  come  as  a  thief  ;"  denot- 
ing the  unexpected  and  sudden  nature  of  his  advent.  Now, 
putting  a  fair  construction  upon  these  passages,  I  cannot 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  y\i\\  be  first  a  thousand 
years  of  millennial  peace,  and  that  at  the  close  of  this  Mil- 
lennium Christ  shall  come  and  sit  upon  his  throne  and 
judge  the  world.  On  the  contrary,  I  am  driven  to  the  con- 
clusion, which  I  have  endeavored  already  to  express,  that 
the  second  advent  of  Christ  is  the  great  hope  of  the  Chris- 
tian church  for  the  future  ;  and  as  the  blessings  of  the 
Gospel  flow  from  faith  in  a  personal  Christ,  so  all  the  splen- 
dors of  the  jMillennium  day  shall  be  reflected  fi'om  a  present 
personal  Christ. 

15* 


174  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

I  think  I  see  throughout  Scripture  clearly  enunciated 
two  resurrections.  These  tAvo  are  stated  in  the  20th  chap- 
ter of  this  book  ;  and  that  the  literal  meaning  is  the  true,  I 
think  will  appear,  if  you  notice  a  peculiarity  in  the  language 
of  the  Apocalypse,  which  I  omitted  to  refer  to,  namely, 
that  invariably,  after  St.  John  had  stated  some  great  symbol, 
he  introduces  a  parenthetic  explanation  of  it,  which  is  of 
necessity  literal.  Thus,  when  he  sees  seven  candlesticks, 
he  appends  the  explanation  of  it;  the  seven  candlesticks, 
that  is,  the  symbols,  are  seven  churches.  The  statement, 
they  "are  seven  churches,"  is  a  literal  explanation  of  the 
symbol,  "  seven  candlesticks;"  so  here,  when  he  states  that 
those  that  had  not  the  mark  of  the  beast  shall  rise  and 
reign  with  Christ  a  thousand  years,  he  adds  the  explanatory 
remark,  exactly  parallel  with  those  cases  I  have  quoted, 
"This  is  the  first  resurrection."'  This  last  expression  is 
not  a  symbol  to  be  further  explained  by  some  literal  fulfil- 
ment, but  it  is  an  historical  or  explanatory  statement  of  a 
symbol  which  literally  describes  the  literal  fact.  But  this 
distinction  in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  is  not  at  all  pecu- 
liar to  the  Apocalypse.  I  find  the  apostle  Paul,  as  I  have 
stated,  saying,  "  If  by  any  means  I  might  attain  unto  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead."  Now,  on  looking  at  the  English 
translation,  we  do  not  precisely  understand  the  hope  of  the 
apostle  ;  for  all  will  attain  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ;  the 
just  and  the  unjust  must  rise  from  the  dead.  Then,  how  could 
this  resurrection  be  an  object  of  glorious  hope  to  the  apos- 
tle, as  distinct  and  separate  from  the  hope  of  the  rest  of  the 
■world  ?  Every  scholar,  or  rather  every  one  that  under- 
stands the  rudiments  of  the  Greek  tongue,  has  only  to  open 
his  Ne-\y  Testament,  and  he  will  find  the  apostle's  language 
is  peculiar  and  distinct.  His  words  are  not  n^v  drduTaait' 
TO))'  vfx.ps>',  but  ^■l]^'  l^uiuuiauiv  eyciSv  I'fx-QSv  —  whicli  mcans 
literally,  "  if  by  any  means  I  may  attain  to  the  resurrec- 
tion," not  rsv  vi-y.g5iv  "of  the  dead,"  but  that  marked,  pe- 
culiar, and  well-known  resurrection,  that  great  one,  "from 
among  the  dead."  It  is  the  most  expressive  combination 
of  words  to  describe  the  first  resurrection ;  and  shows  that 
the  apostle  understood  that  there  was  a  resurrection  pecu- 
liar to  the  people  of  God,  and  distinct  from  the  resurrection 
of  the  unjust.    Our  Lord  also  speaks  of  this  first  resurrection, 


THE   SIGNS   OF   THE  SECOND   ADVENT.  175 

in  language  that  plainly  implies  its  distinction  from  the  last, 
or  second.  In  Luke  20  :  35,  the  very  same  expression, 
T7|5  dtdirTitunui  ri",s  £x.  jair  vfy.(^cbi'  "  that  resurrcction.  that 
one  from  among,  or  of  the  number  of,  the  dead."  Thus  it 
seems  to  me  that  John  refers  to  this  resurrection  as  one 
•well  known  and  universally  admitted,  as  if  he  said,  "  This 
hope  Avhich  Paul  cherished  in  his  trials  —  this  ^\•hicil  is  the 
subject  of  the  Saviours  promise  —  tliis  which  is  the  hope 
and  ardent  expectation  of  iiis  saints;  this  is  not  a  strange, 
a  figurative,  or  symbolic  hope,  but  a  substantial  and  a  real 
one" — "  this  is  that  resurrection,  that  great  one,  from 
among  the  dead." 

I  have  showed  you  what  will  take  place  at  that  resurrec- 
tion, when  Christ  shall  come,  "  wlio  is  the  resurrection  and 
the  life."  The  moment  that  the  cloud  shall  waft  him  on  its 
winjis  from  the  tiirone  on  which  he  now  sits,  and  brinir  him 
within  the  range  and  the  attraction  of  the  orb  on  which  we 
now  stand,  that  instant  every  grave  that  has  a  saint  beneath 
it,  though  the  ocean's  pressure  or  the  Alpine  hills  and  ava- 
lanches be  upon  it,  shall  split  asunder,  and  its  awakened 
dead  shall  come  forth;  and  every  grave  that  contains  the  dust 
of  an  unrenewed  and  unconverted  man, — let  it  be  covered 
with  a  beautiful  tablet,  or  inscribed  with  holy  epitaph, —  let 
it  be  a  cathedral  vault,  or  marble  mausoleum, —  be  it  what 
it  may,  the  summons  will  be  unheard,  and  the  dead  dust 
that  is  there  will  lie  as  still  and  as  quiet  as  the  dead  in  the 
church-yard  were  you  or  I  to  say  to  them  "Come  forth." 
You  will  see  emerge  from  one  grave  a  cloud  of  saints  that 
have  heard  the  sound  of  their  Saviour's  voice  in  its  inmost 
caverns,  and  rise  to  reign  with  Christ  a  thousand  years; 
and  you  will  see  the  graves  of  the  dead  who  are  not  in 
Christ  remain  still  and  motionless  as  if  the  wind  only  swept 
over  them.  But  tiie  living, —  what  is  to  be  their  case  ? 
"The  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first,"  says  the  apostle;  "then 
we,  which  are  alive  and  remain,  shall  be  caught  up  to  meet 
the  Lord  in  the  air."  What  a  sublime  spectacle  that  will 
be  !  ^Yhat  awful  and  startling  severances  !  I  look  into 
that  home.  One  rises,  as  he  hears  a  mysterious  bidding, 
and  ascends  under  a  mysterious  attraction,  and  meets  the 
Lord  in  the  air.  The  mother  is  taken,  the  daughter  is 
left ;  or  two  rise,  and  the  rest  remain.  Suppose  that  the 
hour  that  is  rushing  by  were  this  evening  the  close  of  this 


176  LECTURES    OF    DS-    GUMMING. 

dispensation.  Suppose  that  dread  sound  were  to  reverberate 
tlirough  Exeter  Hall, —  what  would  follow  ?  Men  and 
brethren,  what  spectacle  shall  we  anticipate?  Where  and 
what  shall  we  be  ?  Shall  I  say  a  thousand  or  two  thousand 
will  rise,  as  on  eagles'  wings,  and  unmoved  thousands  remain 
behind  ?  God  knows.  Now  be  at  peace  with  God.  Now 
lay  doAvn  the  weapons  of  rebellion.  If  one  soul  shall  be 
found  that  day  unawakened,  in  his  stirring  home,  or  in 
his  silent  grave,  by  that  royal  sound,  that  soul  will  have 
for  his  portion  the  worm  that  never  dies,  and  the  fire  that 
is  never  quenched ;  and  feel  he  will  forever  what  he  will 
utter  in  his  endless  agony,  "  I  did  it  all  myself:  I  neglected 
the  Gospel,  and  perished  in  my  sins ;  I  loved  the  world  more 
than  I  loved  my  Lord,  and  all  this  ill  is  the  result  of  my 
own  doing,  and  of  nothino;  else." 

Such,  then,  shall  be  the  awful  severance  that  will  take 
place  Avhen  Christ  shall  come.  They  that  sleep  in  Christ 
shall  rise,  and  only  they;  and  they  that  are  alive  and  live 
in  Christ,  and  only  they,  shall  join  them ;  and  the  dead 
whose  souls  are  not  united  to  the  Saviour,  resting  in  their 
graves,  shall  remain.  The  living,  whose  hearts  are  not 
renewed  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  with  the  Saviour,  shall 
remain  also.  The  instant  that  this  earth  has  been  thus 
consigned  to  be  the  habitation  of  the  dead  in  soul,  and  the 
dead  in  body,  the  fire,  which  I  told  you  geologists  have 
admitted,  and  which  the  Scripture  confirms,  to  be  a  large 
ocean  of  restless  and  of  liquid  lava,  that  rolls  and  heaves  in 
the  innermost  recesses  of  the  earth,  of  which  our  volcanoes 
are  but  the  safety-valves,  and  our  earthquakes  as  the  rever- 
berations of  its  ceaseless  Avaves  lashing  its  desolate  and 
dreary  shores,  shall  burst  forth  at  a  thousand  orifices ;  the 
gases  that  compose  our  atmosphere  shall  ignite,  and  "the 
heaven  and  the  earth,"  meaning  this  visible  economy  around 
us,  "  shall  melt,"  in  the  language  of  the  apostle,  "  as  if  with 
fervent  heat :  "  Christ's  people  in  the  air  —  the  people  that 
are  not  Christ's  on  the  earth  —  the  living  punished  on  it  — 
the  dead  buried  beneath  it. 

Such  is  the  solemn  finale ;  and  when  this  has  taken 
place,  this  purified  earth  shall  be  the  residence  of  the  saints 
of  God.  Indeed,  the  impression  has  struck  me  that  the 
twenty-first  and  twenty-second  chapters  of  the  Apocalypse, 


THE    SIGNS    OF   THE   SECOND    ADVENT.  177 

—  on  -which  I  cannot  enter  in  this  hall,  but  some  of  the 
points  of  which  I  shall  have  occasion  to  allude  to  in  a  sec- 
ond series. —  it  strikes  me  that  those  two  chapters  contain  a 
description,  not  of  the  church  in  everlasting  glory,  but  of 
the  church  upon  this  very  world.  I  do  not  advocate  a  car- 
nal or  a  sensuous  heaven :  a  iioly  and  happy  earth  is  not 
carnal.  There  is  nothing  sinful  in  a  stone.  There  is 
nothing  naturally  tainted  and  impure  in  the  grass  that  grows, 
or  in  tlie  trees  that  bloom,  or  in  the  waters  in  the  ocean,  or 
in  the  streams,  or  in  the  rivers  that  flow  toward  the  l)oundless 
main.  It  may  be  restored  and  purified  by  fire,  consecrated 
by  the  descending  footsteps  of  our  descended  God  — the  earth 
may  be  made  the  vestibule  of  glory,  the  twilight  of  a  day 
in  whose  splendors  we  shall  live  and  glow  forever. 

After  this  resurrection  has  taken  place,  the  Millennium 
will  begin ;  for  a  thousand  years  Satan  will  be  chained ;  all 
the  powers  —  the  Satanic  powers  —  that  have  tempted  man- 
kind will  be  repressed  during  the  lapse  of  a  thousand  years, 
and  tlie  earth  shall  be  the  holy  platform,  the  consecrated 
temple  —  the  altar-ground  on  which  congregated  saints,  in 
their  resurrection  bodies,  free  from  all  sin,  shall  worship  and 
adore  the  Lord.  Every  flower  that  decks  the  earth  shall 
reflect  the  splendor,  and  send  up  as  incense  the  fragrance, 
of  the  Sun  of  Righteousness ;  every  sound  in  creation  — 
the  clnme  of  Avaves,  the  breath  of  winds,  the  hum  of  bees, 
the  song  of  birds,  the  lowing  of  cattle  —  shall  lose  the  minor 
sound  that  now  runs  through  them  all.  and,  with  Christ  for 
their  key-note,  shall  be  woven  into  the  harmony  of  a  happy 
universe ;  every  mind  shall  be  light,  every  heart  love,  and 
every  tongue  shall  be  praise. 

Such  is  the  Millennium,  as  it  is  described  in  Scripture ; 
but  one  difficult  point  remains.  It  may  be  my  own  delu- 
sion, but  it  docs  strike  me  that  I  have  found  the  explanation 
of  a  universally  perplexing  point  —  a  confes.sed  difficulty  : 
if  there  is  to  be  a  Millennium  of  a  thousand  years  with 
Christ  and  his  own  people,  in  the  midst  of  the  earth,  how  is 
it  that  when  Satan  shall  be  loosed,  that  there  shall  be  found 
a  people  in  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  called  Gog  and 
Magog,  Avho  shall  be  gathered  together  in  battle,  and  war 
against  the  saints  of  God  in  the  resurrection  body  ?  Now, 
I  admit  there  is  great  difficulty   about  this;  but  observe. 


178  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

the  difficulty  that  occurs  to  the  mind  and  theory  of  a  pre- 
millennialist  is  not  greater  than  tlie  difficulty  that  occurs  to 
the  tlieory  and  exposition  of  a  post-niillennialist.  I  will  give 
what  I  think  the  probable  solution  of  an  admitted  and  pei-plex- 
ing  difficulty.  Do  you  perceive  that  it  is  here  stated,  that 
■when  the  dead  in  Christ  have  risen  and  ascended  to  the  Lord, 
the  rest  of  the  de;id  lived  not  till  the  thousand  years  were  fin- 
ished? I  suppose,  then,  that  "  the  rest  of  the  dead,"  that  is, 
the  unconverted,  are  raised  from  their  graves  just  at  the  mo- 
ment that  the  thousand  years  are  completely  closed:  and  that 
"  the  rest  of  the  dead,"  raised  in  their  bodies,  are  those  ene- 
mies who  make  Avar  with  the  saints  in  their  resurrection 
bodies.  The  unjust  shall  arise  as  well  as  the  just ;  the  one 
shall  have  their  bodies  restored  as  well  as  the  other ;  the  im- 
primatur of  etei'nity  stamped  upon  the  one — the  imprimatur 
of  eternity  stamped  upon  the  other ;  the  one  an  eternal 
capacity  of  woe  —  the  other,  of  bliss.  I  suppose  —  and  I 
believe  it  is  the  true  solution  of  the  difficulty — that  the  ene- 
mies that  come  from  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  are  just 
"  the  rest  of  the  dead,"  raised  at  the  close  of  the  Millennium, 
and  then,  and  there,  with  all  their  vices  unextirpated,  their 
natures  unregenerated,  their  hearts  in  the  gall  of  bitterness, 
they  shall  be  headed  by  the  archangel's  energy,  and  the  arch- 
fiend's hate,  and  shall  make  one  last,  dying,  and  desperate 
attack  upon  the  saints  of  God  that  dwell  in  the  New  Jeru- 
salem, and  who  there  magnify  and  worship  the  Lamb.  Now, 
the  cause  of  the  difficulty  has  generally  been,  that  at  the 
eleventh  verse  of  chapter  twentieth  it  is  stated,  "I  saw  a 
great  white  throne,  and  him  that  sat  on  it,  from  -whose  face 
the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled  away;  and  there  was  found  no 
place  for  them.  And  I  saw  the  dead,  small  and  great,  stand 
before  God :  and  the  books  were  opened :  and  another  book 
Avas  opened,  which  is  the  book  of  life :  and  the  dead  were 
judged  out  of  those  things  that  were  written  in  the  books, 
according  to  their  works."  I  think  this  will  confirm  my 
exposition.  It  is  not  said,  Avhen  the  statement  is  given 
about  the  great  white  throne,  that  the  rest  of  the  dead  then 
rose.  It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  commencement  of  the 
chapter  it  is  said,  "the  rest  of  the  dead  lived  not  till  the 
thousand  years  Avere  finished ; "  and  Avhen  the  great  white 
throne  is  set,  it  is  not  said  that  the  rest  of  the  dead  Avere 


THE   SIGNS   OF  THE   SECOND   ADVENT.  179 

summoned  from  their  graves ;  but  it  presupposes  that  they 
had  ah-cady  arisen,  and  perhaps  impHes  an  interval,  during 
which  interval  they  make  their  last  attack.  It  is  stated  that 
all  liad  risen  at  the  end  of  the  thousand  years,  and  they 
stood  before  the  great  white  throne,  to  receive  judgment 
according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body ;  "  and  as  many  of 
them  as  were  not  found  written  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life, 
were  cast  into  the  lake  that  burneth  with  fire  and  brim- 
stone.'' 

It  is  thus,  then,  that  I  attempt  the  solution  of  a  difficulty 
so  perplexing.  I  only  ask  you  to  study  it.  If  you  sec 
reasons  for  rejecting  this  view,  do  so.  If  you  see  the  con- 
firmation of  it,  you  should  be  thankful  that  you  find  the 
solution  of  a  difficulty  that  has  perplexed  almost  every  com- 
mentator on  the  Apocalypse,  and  which  I  submit  as  a 
thought  that  has  occurred  to  my  own  mind,  as  probably 
the  true  and  just  solution  of  a  great  and  acknowledged  diffi- 
culty. 

jS'ow,  having  gone  thus  far  in  stating  the  nature  of  the 
[Millennium,  I  know  that  many  ({ucstions  will  be  asked,  such 
as  have  been  asked  before,  to  which  no  answers  are  given  in 
Scripture,  and  to  which  I  profess  to  be  able  and  willing  to 
give  none.  If  it  be  asked,  "What  shall  be  the  nature  of 
the  personal  manifestation  of  the  Lord  of  glory  ?  —  shall  we 
sec  the  traces  of  the  nails  in  his  hands  ?  —  shall  we  sec  the 
mark  of  the  crown  of  thorns  about  his  brow?  —  where  will 
he  be  throned  ?  —  in  what  portion  of  the  earth  will  he  be 
seen?  —  how  will  he  talk  or  walk  in  the  midst  of  us?" — to 
such  questions  Scripture  has  given  no  answer ;  and  where 
God's  word  is  silent,  it  is  not  for  me  to  speak.  Again,  the 
question  will  be  asked,  "What  will  be  the  nature  of  the 
resurrection  body  of  the  saints  ?  —  what  will  be  its  employ- 
ments, its  physical  characteristics?"  To  these,  and  a 
thousand  kindred  questions,  the  Bible  gives  no  reply,  and  I 
attempt  to  give  none.  I  look  for  no  sensuous  jNIillennium 
—  no  Pagan  Elysium.  On  the  contrary,  I  would  not  have 
a  Millennium  without  Christ,  but  rather  Christ  without  a 
^iillonnium.  The  believer's  safety  is  in  Christ;  the  believ- 
er's heaven  is  in  Christ;  and  wherever  Christ  is, —  in  the 
firmament  above,  or  in  the  earth  below,  it  matters  not, — 
there  I  desire  to  be,  and  there  perfect  happiness  will  be. 


180  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

But  I  believe  this  high  happiness  will  be  realized  upon  earth, 
—  restored  and  regenerated  earth.  "We  shall  enjoy  a 
felicity,  and  a  glory,  and  a  peace,  on  this  orb,  in  its  resur- 
rection state,  which  poet's  imagination  never  dreamed  of, 
and  which  painter's  pencil  would  attempt  in  vain  to  embody. 
I  believe  that  the  groans  of  this  wearied  world  shall  close ; 
that  the  cry  of  sorrow  that  has  risen  perpetually  from  its 
inhabitants  shall  be  stilled  forever ;  that  it  shall  cease  to 
be  an  aceldama  of  the  living,  or  a  charnel-house  of  the 
dead.  I  believe  that  the  simoom  shall  no  more  sweep  its 
soil,  nor  the  earthquake  upheave  it,  nor  the  lightning's  flash 
rend  its  trees  any  more.  This  earth  shall  put  off  its  ashen 
garments,  and  doff  its  raiment  of  sackcloth.  All  creation 
shall  cast  aside  from  its  eyes  the  dark  shroud  of  sorrow  that 
has  dimmed  them,  and  we  shall  see,  amid  the  glorious  Apoc- 
alypse, the  sun  that  shall  rise  to  set  no  more.  '•  Come, 
Lord  Jesus, —  even  so,  come  quickly  ! "  I  believe  that  our 
poets  shall  lay  aside  their  mourning  garments,  and  put  on 
their  priestly  robes ;  and  philosophy  shall  be  the  handmaid 
ministering  at  the  altar  of  the  Gospel ;  and  all  literature, 
and  all  science,  and  all  knowledge,  shall  become  instinct 
with  glorious  inspiration,  and  shall  blend  their  voices  in 
deep-toned  and  perpetual  harmony,  ' '  Blessing,  and  glory, 
and  honor,  and  thanksgiving  unto  God,  and  to  the  Lamb 
who  was  slain,  for  ever  and  ever." 

But  I  dwell  too  much  on  scenes  on  which  imajiina- 
tion  would  love  to  expatiate  —  scenes,  nevertheless,  which, 
if  before  our  eyes  more  continually,  would  make  all  that  is 
in  the  world  grow  very  pale  and  dim.  A  man  that  can 
anticipate  a  crown  in  glory,  would  see  fainter  charms  in  a 
crown  on  earth.  That  man  who  has  not  an  acre  below,  but 
who  has  an  inheritance  incorruptible  in  reversion,  would 
have  less  desire  for  the  lands  and  houses  of  this  world. 
Just  as  the  sun,  shining  on  the  brightest  fire,  puts  that  fire 
out,  so  a  handful  of  the  beams  that  come  from  the  central 
sun  of  that  millennial  morn  would  extinguish  all  that 
dazzles  men's  eyes,  and  captivates  men's  minds,  and  rivets 
man  as  a  slave  and  a  drudge  to  a  miserable  and  a  dying 
world. 

But  I  pass  on  to  notice  the  signs  of  his  advent.  I  will 
quote  first  a  very  few  texts  which  allude  to  it.     His  advent 


THE   SIGNS   OF  THE  SECOND   ADVENT.  181 

is  attended  with  "times  of  refreshing  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord,"  and  ^vith  "the  time  of  the  restitution  of  all 
things."  The  appearing  of  Christ  is  called  "the  Revela- 
tion of  Christ;  "  "looking  for  that  blessed  hope,  the  glori- 
ous appearing  of  our  groat  God  and  Saviour."  In  Matt. 
24:  80,  it  is  written,  "And  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  man 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and  great  glory." 
In  2  Thcss.  1 :  7,  8.  we  read,  "  AVhen  the  Lord  Jesus  shall 
be  revealed  from  heaven  with  his  mighty  angels,  in  flaming 
fire,  taking  vengeance  on  them  that  know  not  God."  In 
Acts  1 :  11,  it  is  declared,  "  This  same  Jesus,  who  is  taken 
up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like  manner  as 
ye  have  seen  him  go  into  heaven."  In  INIark  13:  35, 
"  Watch  ye,  tiicrefore ;  for  3^0  know  not  when  the  master  of 
the  house  comcth, —  at  even,  or  at  midnglit,  or  at  cock- 
crowing,  or  in  the  morning :  lest,  coming  suddenly,  he  find 
you  sleeping."  In  1  Thess.  5:  2,  "The  day  of  the  Lord 
cometh  as  a  thief  in  the  night;"  that  is,  unexpectedly,  sud- 
denly. Matt.  21:  27,  "  For  as  the  lightning  cometh  out 
of  the  cast,  and  shineth  even  unto  the  west," — the  light- 
ning gives  no  premonition  of  its  approach, —  "so  shall  also 
tlie  coming  of  the  Son  of  man  be."  And  what  shall  take 
place  when  he  comes?  "  In  that  day  the  heavens  shall  pass 
away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with 
fervent  heat.  The  earth,  also,  and  the  works  that  are  there- 
in, shall  be  burned  up."  In  1  Thess.  4:  16,  17,  "The 
Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven  with  a  shout,  with 
the  voice  of  the  archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of  God,  and 
the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first :  then  we  which  are  alive 
and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them  in  the 
clouds,  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air ;  and  so  shall  we  ever  be 
with  the  Lord."  Can  there  be  plainer  language  than  that 
of  Isaiah  24:  23?  — "The  Lord  of  hosts  shall  reign  in 
]\Iount  Zion,  and  in  Jerusalem,  and  before  his  ancients  glo- 
riously." Dan.  7  :  14,  "And  there  was  given  him  domin- 
ion, and  glory,  and  a  kingdom,  that  all  people,  nations,  and 
languages,  should  serve  him.  His  dominion  is  an  everlast- 
ing dominion,  which  shall  not  pass  away;  and  his  kingdom 
that  which  shall  not  be  destroyed." 

Then  Ave  read  what  is  the  character  of  the  saints  in  refer- 
ence to  it —  "  waiting  for  that  blessed  hope ; "  "  waiting  for 
16 


182  LECTURES   OF   DIl.    GUMMING. 

the  coming  of  the  Lord."  The  Lord  Jesus  promises  that 
we  shall  reign  with  him;  that  we  "shall  appear  with  him 
in  glory."  No  sooner  had  Jesus  left  the  earth  at  the  ascen- 
sion, than  the  cry  was  instantly  raised,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus." 
The  bride  is  not  satisfied  with  the  home  and  the  fortune ; 
it  is  for  the  bridegroom  that  she  longs.  No  earthly  substi- 
tute can  satisfy  the  church.  He  only  can  who  is  her  Lord. 
A  paradise  without  ihe  tree  of  life  Avould  have  no  attraction. 
The  Millennium  without  Christ  —  a  Millennium  of  glory 
and  beauty  without  Christ  —  would  have  no  charms  for  a 
Christian.  It  would  be  like  a  tune  without  a  key-note ;  it 
would  be  tangled  harmony ;  it  would  be  worse  —  it  would 
be  intolerable  discord.  It  is  a  personal  Christ  on  which  the 
believer  trusts  below.  It  is  for  a  personal  Christ  that  the 
believer  looks.  Faith  rests  not  upon  a  dogma,  even  justi- 
fication by  faith  :  it  rests  upon  a  living,  personal  Christ  — 
the  Lord  our  Highteousness.  Hope  expects  not  a  mere 
Millennium  ;  it  expects  the  Lord  of  the  Millennium.  The 
disciple  who  wrote  the  Apocalypse,  and  who  leaned  upon 
the  Saviour's  bosom  (and  he  was  neither  sensual  nor  carnal), 
the  instant  that  the  Saviour  said,  "Behold,  I  come  quick- 
ly," added  the  deep-toned  Amen,  which  rose  from  the  very 
depth  of  his  soul,  "Even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus,  come 
quickly."  The  night  cometh  first,  and  then  the  morn.  I 
see  the  shadows  of  a  dark  night  already  forecast  upon  the 
world.  I  see  dark  and  ominous  shadows  creeping,  like 
birds  of  night,  from  every  point  of  the  horizon,  all  giving 
tokens  of  an  approaching  storm  that  will  rend  and  split 
Europe  into  fragments.  We  may  very  speedily  have  to 
witness  men's  souls  looking  with  fear  for  the  things  that  are 
coming  upon  the  earth ;  and  thinking  men,  like  Arnold  and 
others,  who  did  not  study  prophecy,  but  who  looked  at  facts, 
phenomena,  and  science,  felt  their  hearts,  as  I  shall  show 
by  a  quotation,  by  and  by,  fainting  because  of  what  they 
saw  coming  upon  the  world.  But  the  darkest  night  has  its 
morn.  The  cloud  that  is  blackest  has  a  rainbow  gilding 
it.  That  night  shall  pass  away  before  the  rise  of  a  glorious 
sun ;  and  the  instant  that  sun  rises  on  a  benighted  world, 
the  morn  of  the  millennial  day  shall  overspread  the  earth 
with  a  new  and  glorious  aurora  —  a  zone  of  bright  splendor 
' —  an  atmosphere  of  beauty  unparalleled. 


THE    SIGNS    OF   THE  SECOND    ADVENT.  183 


Let  me  notice,  however,  some  of  the 

CLEAR    SIGNS    WHICH    INDICATE   THE   APPKOACH    OF 
THAT   PERIOD. 

I  described,  in  the  course  of  a  recent  lecture,  the  unclean 
spirits  that  go  out  to  deceive  the  nations  of  the  earth  under  the 
si.xth  vial;  and  I  showed  you,  by  incontestable  proofs,  that 
those  unclean  spirits  are  at  work  ni  the  midst  of  our  people. 
The  first,  I  showed  you,  was  Infidelity,  the  spirit  of  the  drag- 
on. I  told  you  tliat  it  consisted  not  simply  in  antagonism  to 
Christianit}';  but  that  it  consisted,  likewise,  in  the  absence 
of  Christianity.  I  believe  that  one  half  of  the  professors 
of  the  Gospel  are  nothing  better  than  practical  infidels.  My 
dear  friends,  if  our  hearts  had  God's  light  and  love  in  them, 
the  very  statement  of  the  Gospel  would  persuade  us  to  em- 
brace it.  I  need  no  evidence  of  the  corruption,  the  desper- 
ate corruption,  of  man's  nature,  but  just  this,  that  he  can 
hear  truths  that  electrify  the  redeemed  in  glory,  for  one 
sound  of  which  the  lost  in  hell  would  give  a  thousand 
worlds,  and  he  has  no  sooner  heard  them,  than  he  goes 
forth,  one  to  his  farm,  and  another  to  his  field,  and  another 
to  his  merchandise,  and  lives  retaining  all  iiis  responsibility, 

—  for  of  that  he  cannot  divest  himself, —  but  without  one 
portion  of  holiness,  or  loyalty,  or  prospect  of  peace.  We 
are  told  that  tlie  last  age  will  be  characterized  by  selfishness; 
and  this  is  a  predominant  characteristic  of  the  present  state 
of  our  world.  Let  any  man  take  his  station  on  any  of  our 
great  thoroughfares,  as,  for  instance,  near  St.  Paul's,  and  let 
him  look  along  the  living  mass  that  pours  down  Cheapside ; 
it  seems  as  if  every  man  were  so  absorbed  in  himself,  that 
if  the  man  who  runs  before  him  were  to  fall,  he  Avould  just 
make  him  a  stepping-stone  from  which  he  would  take  a 
greater  leap,  that  he  might  the  sooner  reach  the  E.xchange. 
So  truly  selfish  does  human  nature  show  itself — so  selfish 
has  human  nature  become  !  What  do  you  do  for  the  cause 
of  Christ?  What  do  you  give ?  You  give,  perhaps,  some 
£10  a  year  for  wine  and  spirits,  both  probably  useless. 
You  give  for  other  luxuries  and  gratifications  of  sense  other 
£10  a  year.     How  much  do  you  give  to  the  cause  of  Christ  ? 

—  a  guinea  a  year,  and  you  think  you  have  thus  acquitted 
yourself  of  all  responsibility  before  God.  What  a  contrast 
are  wo  to  those  in  that  day  "  who  rejoiced  that  they  were 


184  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

counted  worthy  to  suffer  for  his  name's  sake,"  and  gave  up 
riches  and  home,  and  all  that  they  had,  as  the  choicest  gifts 
they  could  lay  upon  the  altar  of  their  Lord !  Hear  Avhat  men 
shall  be,  and  let  the  people  of  London  sit  for  the  contrast. 
Hear  the  inspired  sketch,  look  to  the  living  men,  and  see  if 
there  be  not  a  perfect  coincidence.  In  the  last  days  men 
shall  be,  first,  "lovers  of  their  own  selves;"  secondly, 
"covetous;"  thirdly,  "boasters;"  fourthly,  "proud;" 
fifthly,  "  blasphemers;  "  sixthly,  "  disobedient  to  parents;  " 
that  beautiful,  that  musical  sound,  father,  is  being  banished 
from  England's  homes,  and  that  horrible  importation  from 
France,  "our  governor,"  is  being  substituted  in  its  place. 
Men  shall  be  "unthankful;"  what  evidence  of  this  in  our 
churches,  in  our  Exchange,  in  the  streets  of  our  city ! 
"unholy,  without  natural  affection." 

An  awful  and  terrible  characteristic  of  those  days  is,  the 
increase  and  spread  of  Popery.  If  I  look  around  me,  I 
see  on  every  side  Popery  pluming  its  wings ;  and  that  great 
religious  maniac,  for  that  is  his  true  name,  who  has  reigned 
at  Kome  for  eighteen  centuries,  whose  lunacy  and  madness 
the  apostle  foresaw  when  he  says,  "  the  mystery  of  iniquity 
doth  already  work,"  putting  forth  new  and  too  successful 
efforts.  His  madness  once  rose  to  such  a  height  that  the 
kings  and  sovereigns  of  the  earth  conspired  together  to  drag 
him  from  his  throne  for  the  sake  of  their  own  safety.  Eng- 
land had  felt  him  to  l)e  so  intolerable  a  curse,  that  she  raised 
walls  high  and  thick  between  herself  and  all  contact  and 
communion  with  him.  This  maniac  has  now  made  honest 
Englishmen  believe  that  he  is  a  liberal  Pontiff;  that  he  is 
anxious  for  liberty  and  freedom,  and  all  good  things ;  but 
you  may  depend  upon  it,  it  is  but  the  cunning  of  the  maniac, 
seeking  to  find  scope  for  the  development  of  his  terrible 
passions.  See  whether  I  am  a  prophet  of  truth  or  a  prophet 
of  error  when  I  state  that  that  power,  so  unsuspected  by 
the  generous,  and  open,  and  unsuspecting  hearts  of  Britons, 
will  yet  obtain  a  grasp  of  our  country,  if  we  court  him,  so 
terrible,  that  the  throne  and  the  altar  will  rock  and  real  be- 
neath it ;  and  you  will  mourn  the  day  when  you  despised 
the  predictions  of  the  prophet,  and  trusted  to  the  conclu- 
sions of  the  "march  of  intellect,"  or  the  philosophers  and 
savans  of  the  day. 


THE   SIGNS   OF  THE   SECOND   ADVENT.  185 

I  need  not  give  you  proofs  of  the  spread  of  that  terrible 
system.  I  can  only  say  that  its  basilisk  eye  is  riveted  on 
all  that  is  dear  and  precious  to  us.  Tractarianism  is  just 
the  smoke  that  arises  from  it,  and  conceals  from  the  eyes  of 
the  masses  the  unclean  locusts  of  the  spiritual  Egypt.  I 
believe  that  these  Tractarians  are  just  the  backwoodsmen 
of  Popery  —  its  pioneers,  making  room  for  it  —  caterers  to 
the  Pope ;  some  of  them  his  acknowledged  servants.  And 
there  is  no  class  or  description  of  his  janissaries  on  whom 
Pope  Pius  IX.  looks  with  more  consummate  complacency 
than  on  those  who  sign  nobly  Protestant  articles,  and  at  the 
same  time  preach  thoroughly  Popish  doctrine  ;  who  take 
bread  left  for  Protestant  ends,  and  cat  it,  while  they  propa- 
gate the  very  errors  against  which  they  have  sworn  solemnly 
to  protest. 

I  see,  then,  in  the  spread  of  Popery,  and  in  the  spread 
of  that  which  I  have  called  Popery  without  a  Pope,  the 
evidence  that  we  are  at  the  close  of  the  sixth  vial,  or  pass- 
ing from  under  it  to  the  seventh,  and  that  the  Lord  is  at 
hand.  I  may  mention  another  characteristic  of  these  latter 
times  here  —  and  I  wish  to  state  it  without  expressing  any 
particle  of  political  preference  :  it  is  the  utter  dislocation 
of  parties.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  party  now.  The  old 
names  that  used  to  be  the  watchwords  of  the  different  par- 
tics  in  the  state  are  no  more.  It  seems  as  if  some  explosive 
force  had  entered  the  hearts  of  all  political  parties,  and  split 
them  into  a  thousand  splinters.  What  does  this  indicate? 
It  is  a  law  in  nature,  that,  when  a  disintegration  of  particles 
has  taken  place,  it  is  always  preparatory  to  new  combina- 
tions. The  same  law  holds  good  in  morals  and  in  politics ; 
it  seems  as  if,  when  all  parties  are  thus  dislocated,  and  dis- 
integrated, and  broken  up,  it  Avere  the  preparation  for  that 
tremendous  conspiracy  against  God,  and  against  man,  which 
is  the  perfect  and  full  development  of  Antichrist,  on  whom 
the  judgments  of  God  shall  descend,  and  who  shall  be  cast, 
with  all  that  bear  his  mark,  into  the  lake  that  burneth  for 
ever  and  ever.  There  is  just  one  thing  on  which  almost  all 
statesmen  of  the  present  day  are  agreed  —  they  differ  on 
almost  every  topic  but  this,  namely,  that  the  chains  wound 
around  the  Romish  priesthood  shall  be  taken  off.  I  am  not 
in  flivor  of  penalties  in  these  matters,  if  it  be  possible  to 
16* 


186  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

dispense  Avith  them  :  but  is  it  not  fair,  when  great  statesmen 
are  convinced  tlitit  the  time  is  come  for  removing  from  the 
statute-book  all  restrictions  from  the  Church  of  Rome,  that 
Ave  should  ask  for,  at  least,  a  recognition  of  our  generosity, 
bj  requesting  the  Pope  to  remove  all  pains,  and  curses,  and 
penalties,  against  us  from  his  statute-book?  In  vain  wc 
ask  him  to  do  so.  Pius  IX.  boasts  of  his  liberality,  and 
calls  upon  us  to  remove  all  pains  and  penalties  that  were 
directed  against  him  for  our  defence ;  but  he  tells  you  he 
Avould  as  soon  remove  from  the  Vatican  itself  as  remove 
from  his  statute-book  one  exterminating  bull,  or  expunge 
one  decree  that  consigns  us,  from  our  noble  Queen  upon  her 
throne  to  the  meanest  of  her  subjects,  to  destruction  of  soul 
and  body  in  time  and  in  eternity,  because  of  our  opposition 
to  him,  and  our  refusal  to  submit  to  his  authority ;  and  yet, 
strange  it  is  that  we  should  expect  any  other  treatment 
from  this  quarter! 

Another  sign  of  the  last  times,  besides  the  increase  of 
Popery  and  Infidelity,  and  this  dislocation  and  disintegra- 
tion of  parties,  is  the  increased  interest,  as  I  have  told  you, 
which  is  felt  in  the  Jews.  This  is  one  of  the  startling  phe- 
nomena of  the  age,  one  of  the  premonitory  signs  of  closing 
cycles,  and  of  a  coming  Lord.  As  I  told  you  in  the  morn- 
ing, there  is  not  a  nation  on  the  continent  of  Europe  that  is 
not  more  or  less  agitated  about  the  state  and  position  of  the 
Jews.  This  excitement  is  the  more  strange,  inasmuch  as 
those  Jews  are  not  troublesome  political  disturbers ;  their 
power  as  a  party  is  nothing,  and,  as  for  themselves,  give 
them  twenty  per  cent,  and  they  will  feel  contempt  for  all 
the  political  privileges  which  you  can  bestow  upon  them ; 
yet,  is  it  not  a  fact,  that  every  state  seems  afraid  lest  it 
should  be  suspected  for  a  moment  that  it  withholds  one 
political  privilege  from  the  Jew?  Poor,  weary-footed  wan- 
derer !  give  him,  for  a  little,  a  home  in  your  land  —  let 
him,  for  a  few  days,  have  the  possibility  of  it  in  the  midst 
of  you  —  I  will  promise  he  will  not  trouble  you  long ;  he  is 
the  denizen  of  a  nobler  clime  —  his  heart  leans  toward 
Jerusalem,  as  the  needle  to  the  pole.  Amid  the  debris  of 
every  dynasty,  his  eye  rests  upon  Salem,  and  his  heart 
beats  and  pants  for  the  coming  of  the  great  Messiah  —  the 
true  Solomon  —  the  hope  of  Israel.     When  I  look  upon  a 


THE   SIGNS    OF   THE   SECOND   ADVENT.  187 

Jew,  he  reminds  me  of  some  discrowned  monarch,  swept 
from  his  throne  for  some  gi-eat  offence,  cast  into  the  midst 
of  a  strange  land :  his  very  looks  indicate  a  consciousness 
of  some  dread  crime,  by  which  he  is  haunted  everywhere. 
The  Jews  are  a  national  phenomenon,  which  nothing  can 
explain  but  the  gospel  —  a  phenomenon  that  shall  play  a 
part  in  the  history  of  Europe  the  grandest  and  the  most 
momentous  in  all  the  records  of  the  past. 

I  may  notice,  also,  as  a  prelude  to  our  Lord's  advent,  the 
great  efforts  that  are  made  in  every  portion  of  the  globe  at 
self-perfection,  or  rather,  as  it  has  been  called,  self-regenera- 
tion. Do  I  not  see,  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of 
society,  the  most  strenuous,  and  in  their  place  the  most  com- 
mendable, efforts  to  add  to  the  perfection  of  our  nature,  to 
expedite  the  full  development  of  all  we  are  capable  of  —  in 
short,  if  possible,  to  bring  on  a  millennium  of  happiness 
without  Christ,  in  the  midst  of  our  earth.  For  instance,  our 
sanitary  improvements,  the  most  proper  and  the  most  lauda- 
ble, are  pointed  to  by  some  as  if  they  could  bid  defiance  to 
the  judgments  of  God,  and  even  to  death  itself;  and  hy- 
dropathy, and  homoeopathy,  and  successive  pathies,  concocted 
by  the  talent  of  man,  arc  set  forth,  one  after  another,  as  the 
true  elixir  of  human  life.  Men  seem  to  feel  that  they  ought 
to  live  forever ;  and,  recollecting  their  original  glory,  they 
seek  to  grasp  anything  which  will  promise  to  enable  them 
to  do  so. 

Chemistry  writes  its  books  and  pursues  its  brilliant  discov- 
eries, as  if  persuaded  that  a  world  that  groans  beneath  the 
curse  has  in  it  the  germ  or  secret  of  millennial  blessedness. 

Education  is  the  great  demand  of  the  day.  Men  are  not 
agreed  in  what  they  should  be  educated.  Some  say  they 
must  be  educated  in  the  absence  of  all  religion,  which  is  just 
as  absurd  as  that  it  is  enough  to  cultivate  the  intellect,  and 
dwarf  the  heart  —  to  teach  the  young  the  knowledge  of  the 
creature,  but  not  of  the  Creator.  But  if  men  are  not  agreed 
what  must  be  taught,  they  are  all  perfectly  agreed  that  men 
must  be  taught ;  and  science,  and  geology,  and  astronomy, 
are  constantly  toiling  and  boasting  of  their  discoveries,  and 
some  of  them  are  brilliant ;  and  scientific  institutions,  and 
mechanics'  institutions,  and  athenajums,  are  growing  up  on 
all  sides  of  us  :  all  this  is  knowledge  running  to  and  fro,  and 


188  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 


increased;  and  -Nvhat  will  be  the  result  of  it  all?  After  the 
most  successful  efiforts  have  been  made  in  cultivatinif  the 
earth,  till  it  is  almost  overspread  with  millennial  crops  — 
after  science,  geology,  astronomy,  have  done  their  utmost  to 
make  man  happy  by  making  him  wise  and  rich  —  man  will  feel 
that  he  has  failed  to  reach  the  happiness  of  which  our  nature 
was  made  originally  capable,  and  the  cry  will  rise  from  the 
still  aching  heart  of  disappointed  humanity  with  more  piercing 
intensity,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus;"  and  he  will  come  and  make 
it  happy  forever. 

Another  feature  of  the  times  that  will  precede  the  last 
day  will  be  great  activity  on  the  part  of  Satan.  That 
activity  shows  itself  now  in  a  thousand  shapes  :  sometimes 
Satan  appears  as  an  angel  of  light,  in  all  the  splendors  of 
the  archangel  fallen;  sometimes  as  he  is.  In  all  his  efforts, 
however,  he  combines  the  wisdom  of  the  archangel  with  the 
malignity  of  the  arch-fiend.  He  seems  now  as  if  dreading 
the  everlasting  fires  in  which  he  must  soon  live,  and  suffer  ; 
and  is,  therefore,  anxious  to  attain  a  footing  in  some  nook  or 
corner  of  the  globe,  where  he  may  stave  off,  if  not  forever, 
at  least  for  a  longer  time,  the  great  judgment  which  he 
knows  must  ultimately  overtake  him. 

We  see  another  symbol  of  the  last  days  in  the  rank 
systems  of  error  that  grow  up  about  us.  Germany  and 
America  are  overrun  with  fanaticism  of  the  most  hideous 
description.  Even  England  is  not  without  its  fanatics;  and, 
as  religion  becomes  more  earnest  in  the  hands  of  the  few, 
fanaticism  Avill  become  rampant  in  the  hearts  of  the  many. 
Men  can  never  be  without  a  religion.  They  must  have  a 
religion  of  some  sort. 

We  may  expect  also  in  the  last  days,  and  immediately 
prior  to  the  advent  of  Christ,  great  and  awful  judgments,  as 
our  Lord  himself  has  predicted,  and  tribulations  such  as 
have  not  been  even  since  the  world  began.  The  signs  of 
these  loom  in  the  distant  horizon.  I  showed  you  some  of 
them  in  the  pestilence  that  fell  upon  the  vegetable  world ; 
in  the  crashing  that  sounded  through  the  length  and  breadth 
of  our  commercial  system  within  the  last  few  years,  the 
remains  of  which  are  now  visiting  the  respectable  tradesmen 
of  our  country,  like  the  mists  that  settle  first  on  mountain 
heights  and  then  descend  to  the  valleys   that  lie  around 


THE   SIGNS   OF  THE   SECOND    ADVENT.  189 

them :  we  see  it  in  the  state  of  things  across  the  Channel  — 
all  society  fermenting  and  ill  at  ease.  There  is  not  a  nation 
of  Europe  that  does  not  deprecate  war ;  but  there  is  not  a 
nation  of  Europe  that  does  not  place  its  hand  upon  its  SAvord- 
hilt,  and  hold  itself  ready  for  war.  Preparation  for  it  is  laid 
down  as  a  duty.  "  Mens  hearts  failing  them  for  fear  of  the 
things  that  are  coming  on  the  earth,"'  is  literally  true. 
Hence  that  profound  tliinker,  whose  biography  has  improved 
so  many  —  i)r.  Arnold  —  made  this  remark,  and  it  is  strik- 
ini;  as  cominji  from  so  severe  and  disciplined  a  mind  as  his  : 
'•  My  sense  of  the  evils  of  the  times  that  are  coming,  and  of 
the  prosi)ects  to  which  I  am  bringing  up  my  poor  children, 
is  overwhelming ;  times  are  coming  in  which  the  devil  will 
fight  his  best,  and  that  in  good  earnest."  lie  was  no  fanatic 
who  said  this,  but  a  man  of  a  calm  and  rellective  mind. 

Another  sign  of  the  near  approach  of  the  advent  of 
Christ  will  be  the  spread  of  knowledge.  Daniel  gives  us 
this  indication  when  lie  says,  "Many  shall  run  to  and  fro, 
and  knowledge  shall  be  mcreased."'  Do  we  not  see  the 
signs  of  this  around  us  ?  A  century  ago,  if  a  man  made  a 
discovery  in  science  and  art,  it  was  likely  to  be  his  fortune ; 
but  now,  if  one  makes  a  discovery  in  chemistry,  in  science, 
or  in  any  department  of  knowledge,  on  which  one  would 
have  staked  a  fortune  in  former  times,  he  will  find  that  a 
discovery  made  in  1848  is  superseded  by  a  more  brilliant 
one  before  the  year  has  closed.  We  see  steam  running  and 
executing  the  errand  of  man,  and  carrying  five  hundred  at 
onee,  at  the  rate  of  fifty  miles  an  hour !  Man  has  made 
the  greatest  approach  to  the  power,  though  he  has  not  made 
a  correspondent  approach  to  the  holiness,  of  God,  when  he 
takes  the  lightnings  and  makes  them  carry  his  messages. 
How  true  is  it  that  many  run  to  and  fro,  and  knowledge  is 
increased  !  We  have  explored  the  depths  of  the  ocean,  and 
searched  the  caves  of  the  Alps :  the  march  of  intellect  is 
the  name  with  which  the  present  age  has  christened  itself. 
Not  that  we  Christians  should  fear.  Let  that  chemist  work 
in  his  laboratory ;  encourage  that  astronomer,  who  spends 
the  night  in  cataloguing  groups  of  stars ;  let  that  mathe- 
matician pore  over  books,  and  waste  the  midnight  oil;  let 
that  schoolmaster  prosecute  his  Avork ;  let  all  men  Avork 
hard,  and  Avork  constantly  ;  they  are  unconsciously  under  an 


190  LECTURES    OP   DR.    GUMMING. 

impulse  of  which  they  see  not  the  end.  That  impulse  is  a 
divine  one  ;  they  are  opening  channels  for  the  gospel ;  they 
are  decking  and  dressing  those  handmaids  that  are  to 
accompany  the  bride  Avhen  she  meets  the  Bridegroom  ;  they 
are  lighting  new  altar-candles,  and  polishing  new  gems  for 
his  temple ;  it  is  the  rush  of  the  waves  of  science,  and 
literature,  and  knowledge,  that  roll  onward  and  upward  to 
the  presence  of  the  everlasting  throne,  there  to  reflect  the 
glory  of  Him  that  made  them,  and  the  riches  of  Him  who 
is  throned  upon  the  very  riches  of  the  universe  itself;  and 
as  if  it  were  a  forecast  light  of  this  blessed  result,  every 
discovery  made  within  the  last  few  years  has  been  a  dis- 
covery contributing  to  show  the  truth  and  the  harmony  of 
the  gospel  with  the  facts  of  the  universe.  For  instance, 
"when  we  were  told,  in  that  very  unphilosophical  book,  "  Ves- 
tiges of  Creation,"  that  there  is  in  a  certain  part  of  the 
firmament  a  mass  of  nebulous  matter,  and  that  this  nebu- 
lous matter  gradually  forms  itself  into  a  shape,  till,  fully 
developed,  it  becomes  a  greater  orb,  a  world  in  our  plane- 
tary system,  Lord  Rosse  turned  his  telescope  to  the  alleged 
nebulous  matter,  which  was  said  to  be  proof  positive  that 
worlds  were  made  without  a  maker,  and  he  discovered  that, 
instead  of  being  unmade  embryo  Avorlds,  it  consists  of  clus- 
ters of  stars,  or  worlds  already  made,  and  larger  than  our 
own.  Science  is  one  of  those  which  will  outlast  tlie 
Millennium  itself,  as  the  interpreter  of  the  book  of  nature. 
When  I  look  up  into  that  spangled  and  illuminated  sky  — 
when  I  look  at  those  countless  altar-fires  that  burn  perpetu- 
ally, and  when  by  their  light  I  see  star  beyond  star,  and 
planet  beyond  planet,  and  wdien  I  have  viewed  by  the  most 
powerful  telescope  the  remotest  stars  of  our  system,  and 
when  I  find  that  those  remotest  stars  are  but  the  sentinels 
and  the  outposts  of  that  mighty  host  that  lies  scattered 
throughout  the  plains  of  infinitude,  silently  hymning  per- 
petual praise  around  the  throne  of  Him  that  made  them, 
and  giving  glory  to  Him  that  lighted  them  up  with  all  their 
splendor  —  1  see  in  these  the  indisputable  evidences  of 
Deity,  and  I  am  constrained  to  pity  the  man  who  can  speak 
of  a  creation  without  a  Creator,  as  I  am  constrained  to  pity 
the  man  who  can  think  of  such  a  revelation  as  that  of  the 
Bible  without  the  recoo-nition  of  God  as  its  revealer. 


THE   SIGNS    OP   THE   SECOND   ADVENT.  191 

Let  me  notice  another  evidence  of  the  nearness  of  the 
Saviour's  approach  in  the  present  day,  and  that  is,  increased 
missionary  effort.  I  sliowcd  you  that  the  missionary  enter- 
prise began  to  be  carried  out  during  the  outpouring  of  the 
vials  Avith  augmented  energy.  All  the  great  ^lissionary 
Societies  are  the  offspring  of  the  last  fitly  years.  Tiie 
Baptist  Society  arose  in  1702 ;  then  came  in  succession, 
like  mountain  peaks,  catching  successively  the  rays  of  sun- 
rise, the  London  ]Missionary,  the  Church  Missionary,  the 
Church  of  Scotland  schemes,  and  the  Weslcyan  INIissionary 
Societies,  all  of  which  fulfilled  that  Apocalyptic  picture  of 
the  angel  flying  abroad  Avith  the  everlasting  gospel  unto  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  :  and  uhat  does  Christ  himself  say? 
"This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  unto  all 
nations; '"'  for  M"hat  purpose?  Is  it  said,  to  convert  them, 
and  then  shall  the  end  come?  Xo :  "  this  gospel  of  the 
kingdom  shall  be  preached  among  all  nations,  for  a  witness ; " 
and  what  then?  and  "then  shall  the  end  come."  Now  the 
Bible  has  been  translated  into  the  tongue  of  every  nation, 
and  the  gospel  has  been  preached  to  every  jjeople.  At 
length,  China,  which  stood  out  so  long,  has  been  storm'ed 
by  the  soldiers  of  the  gospel,  and  the  Christian  banner  has 
been  unfolded  in  the  midst  of  it.  The  event  that  follows 
is  the  advent  of  Christ.  • 

Another  sign  of  the  approach  of  our  Lord  is  the  apathy 
and  unbelief  that  shall  be  felt  with  regard  to  it.  One  of 
the  signs  that  Christ  is  near  is  the  fact  that  even  Christians 
will  explain  this  nearness  away.  There  is  no  one  thing 
stated  more  fully  or  more  fro(|uently  in  the  word  of  God 
than  this,  that,  in  these  last  days,  men  shall  say,  "Where 
is  the  promise  of  his  coming?  for  since  the  fathers  fell 
asleep,  all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the  beginning 
of  the  creation."  "  When  they  shall  say.  Peace  and  safety; 
then  sudden  destruction  cometh  upon  them."  Is  not  this 
what  men  are  saying  now?  I  doubt  not  some  will  retire 
from  this  nail  and  say,  "  What  folly  and  fanaticism  we  have 
heard  !  we  cannot  believe  a  word  of  what  he  has  said." 
Well,  if  you  like,  reject  all  my  views  of  Apocalyptic  chro- 
nology—  reject  all  my  historical  explanations;  but  at  least 
do  not  reject  this,  that  Christ,  who  died  upon  the  cross,  will 
come,  and  when  ye  think  not,  and  reign,  wearing  his  many 


192  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

cro'v^Tis,  and  sit  on  his  glorious  throne.  Look  for  him,  and 
the  same  Christ  will  come  again,  the  Husband  to  the  widow, 
the  Bridegroom  to  the  bride. 

When  I  think  of  what  succeeds  the  time  when  he  does 
come,  I  can  scarcely  realize  that  glorious  Sabbath  which 
will  overspread  the  earth  !  that  noble  song  which  will  be 
heard  when  the  saints  shall  sing  together,  Holy,  holy,  holy, 
is  the  Lord  God  of  hosts  !  Wliat  a  flood  of  beauty,  magnifi- 
cence, and  glory,  will  roll  over  this  now  shattered  orb,  like 
the  countless  waves  of  an  illuminated  ocean  ;  illuminated 
by  Christ,  the  great  central  Sun,  around  whom  all  systems 
revolve,  and  from  whom  all  beauty  comes.  And,  my  dear 
friends,  if  there  be  the  least  probability  in  what  I  have  said, 
that  Christ  is  at  hand,  is  it  not  our  duty  to  pause  —  to  pon- 
der, to  search  if  it  be  so?  When  men  heard  that  there 
was  a  new  star  somewhere  to  bo  detected  in  the  firmament, 
there  were  some  thousands  of  telescopes  every  night  directed 
to  the  skies,  and  countless  star-gazers  searched,  if,  perad- 
venture,  they  might  discover  it.  My  dear  friends,  a  Star 
comes,  brighter  and  more  beautiful  than  any  other,  "the 
bright  and  morning  Star,"  too  long  concealed  by  clouds 
which  are  about  to  be  chased  away ;  why  should  not  our 
hearts  look  for  him  ?  why  should  not  the  believer,  who  has 
ehared  in  the  bitterness  and  in  the  blessings  of  his  cross, 
pray  and  pant  for  him,  if,  peradventure,  he  may  share  in 
the  splendors  of  his  crown  ?  Is  not  the  Lord  welcome  as 
he  is  dear  to  us  ?  Crushed  and  bleeding  humanity,  under 
the  suffering  of  its  thousand  wrongs,  cries,  "  Come,  Lord 
Jesus."  The  earth,  weary  with  its  groans  and  the  sobs  of 
its  childi-en,  cries,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus."  The  persecuted 
saints  in  Tahiti  and  in  Madeira,  in  the  dens  and  caves  and 
solitary  places  of  the  earth,  cry,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus." 
And,  surely,  many  a  heart  in  this  hall,  that  has  been 
"warmed  by  his  love,  that  has  been  refreshed  by  his  peace, 
and  sanctified  by  his  grace,  shall  likewise  raise  the  same 
cry,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus;"  and  the  sublime  response  will 
descend  from  heaven  like  a  wave  from  the  ocean  of  love 
overflowing  men's  hearts,  "  Behold,  I  come  quickly."  As 
in  some  great  and  populous  city  the  train  comes  thundering 
along  uninterrupted  and  unobstructed  to  its  destination,  so 
I  believe  Christ  will  come  in  the  chariot  of  the  gospel; 


THE   SIGNS   OF  THE   SECOND    ADVENT.  193 

right  through  all  the  traffic,  and  the  arts,  and  the  sciences, 
and  the  literature  of  the  -world ;  all  things  giving  it  an  im- 
pulse, and  none  presenting  an  obstruction. 

Brethren,  I  ^Yill  this  day  close  my  lectures  in  Exeter 
Hall.  I  thank  this  vast  audience  for  the  solemn  silence 
with  \Yhich  they  have  listened,  and  I  praise  God  for  the 
striking  effects  of  -which  I  have  heard.  I  anticipate  the 
day  when  I  shall  meet  some  of  you  in  "the  first  resur- 
rection,"' and  rejoice  together  with  you  in  the  presence  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb.  As  I  have  told  you,  my  delight  in 
the  study,  and  my  joy  in  preaching  to  you,  have  been  more 
than  a  compensation  for  all  the  toil  I  have  gone  through. 
What  I  have  preached  to  you  were  not  lectures  got  up  in  a 
day,  but  they  have  been,  more  or  less,  the  gathering  of 
years  tliat  are  passed.  Tliese  lectures,  I  know,  have  been 
blessed  to  many  :  and,  my  dear  friends,  if  there  has  been 
any  effect  produced  by  what  I  have  said,  that  effect  has 
arisen,  first,  from  the  weighty  truths  I  have  enunciated; 
next,  in  that  I  have  spoken  just  what  I  felt,  and  stated  just 
what  I  believed,  and  nothing  more.  And  no  man  speaks 
from  the  heart  without  reaching  the  heart.  I  have  ad- 
dressed all  sorts  of  persons  in  this  hall,  from  almost  the 
ver^^  highest  in  the  land  down  to  the  very  lowest.  I  have 
heard  of  crowds  of  Episcopalians,  Independents,  Baptists, 
"Wcsleyans,  and  numbers  of  our  Free  Church  brethren ;  I 
have  addressed  all  as  forgetting  and  forgiving  minor  differ- 
encea.  and  thinkin-]!;  of  that  glorious  cement  that  will  bind 
us  perpetually  in  one.  I  have  given  offence  to  some ;  it 
was  impossible  to  avoid  it ;  I  never  can  consent  to  pas3 
along  like  a  footman,  apologizing  to  every  person  that  ho 
touches  for  the  trouble  and  inconvenience  he  inflicts  :  I 
must  go  right  on  upon  the  rails  that  God  has  laid  down  :  I 
have  no  object  but  to  speak  the  truth,  and  the  whole  truth ; 
and  whether  you  will  hear,  or  Avhether  you  will  forbear, 
this  only  relieves  me,  He  that  judgeth  me  is  God  :  it  is  a 
light  thing  to  be  laughed  at  by  some ;  it  is  a  lighter  thing 
to  l)e  scorned  by  others  ;  it  is  a  glorious  and  a  blessed  thing 
to  know,  that  lie  that  judgeth  me,  and  He  that  approveth, 
is  God. 

And,  my  dear  friends,  think  again  that  we  must  all  ap- 
pear, some  in  the  first,  and  some  in  the  second  resurrection  •. 
17 


194  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

oh,  if  these  he  realities,  let  me  put  it  to  you,  why  should 
any  one  of  you  hesitate  -ffhether  you  shall  be  in  the  first  or  in 
the  last  resurrection  !  Why  is  it,  when  precious  atoning 
hlood  is  offered,  and  a  glorious  Saviour  is  preached  to  you  — 
and  an  instant  welcome  addressed  to  the  worst  and  the  very 
vilest  of  sinners  —  let  me  ask  you  —  let  me  put  it  to  you  — 
dear  friends,  bear  with  me  for  a  moment  while  I  put  it  to 
you  —  why  should  you  die  ?  why  perish  ?  why  not  be 
saved?  When  I  bid  you  be  Christians,  I  just  bid  you  be 
happy.  My  dear  friends,  you  will  allow  me  to  speak  from 
experience.  I  know  what  the  gospel  is,  because  I  have 
tasted  its  sweetness  ;  and  I  am  perfectly  convinced  that  no 
man  can  be  happy,  even  in  this  world,  who  has  not  a 
personal  interest  in  the  Son  of  God.  It  is  only  when  you 
can  lift  up  your  hearts  and  say,  "  The  Rock  of  ages  is  my 
trust  —  infinitude,  with  all  its  grandeur,  is  my  home  —  eter- 
nity, with  its  ceaseless  ages,  is  my  lifetime  —  the  great  God 
my  Father,  the  Lam1)  upon  the  throne  my  Saviour;  "  that 
you  can  add,  "  Come  weal,  come  wo,  come  life,  come  death, 
come  revolution,  and  earthquake,  and  tumults  of  the  people, 
nothing  can  separate  me  from  Christ."  Oh  !  with  what  an 
elastic  footstep  will  you  walk  the  world  !  with  what  courage 
will  you  brave  its  surges,  and  its  storms,  and  its  trials,  con- 
scious that  all  things  work  together  for  good  to  them  that 
love  God,  and  are  called  according  to  his  purpose  ! 

My  dear  friends,  I  say  to  many  of  you.  Farewell ;  and  I 
say  that  in  a  sense  in  which  it  is  not  often  uttered.  I  say 
it  not  lightly,  but  solemnly.  May  you  fare  well  in  the  first 
resurrection.  May  you  fare  well  at  the  judgment-day. 
May  you  fare  well  in  time.  May  you  fare  well  in  eternity  : 
and  at  that  day,  when  sighs  and  farewells  shall  cease,  may 
we  meet  before  the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,  and  so 
be  for  ever  with  the  Lord !     Amen,  and  Amen. 


Como,  then,  and,  added  to  thy  many  crowns. 

Receive  yet  one,  tho  crown  of  all  the  earth. 

Thou  who  alone  art  worthy. — 

Thy  saints  proclaim  thee  King;  and  in  their  hearts 

Thy  title  is  engraven  with  a  pen 

Dipt  in  tho  fountain  of  eternal  love. 

Thy  saints  proclaim  thee  King;   and  thy  delay 

Gives  courage  to  their  foes,  who,  could  they  seo 

The  dawn  of  thy  last  advent,  long  desired. 

Would  creep  into  the  bowels  of  the  hills, 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  195 

And  flco  for  safety  to  the  falling  rocks. 

The  very  spirit  of  tho  world  is  tired 

Of  its  own  taunting  ((iiestion,  ask'd  so  long, — 

"  Where  is  the  promise  of  your  Lord's  approach?  " 


ABSTRACT    OF   LECTURES. 

[The  following  is  Dr.  Cutuming's  abstract  of  his  full  course  of  twenty- 
six  lectures,  which  he  gave  iu  Exeter  Hall  in  1818.  It  presents  a  summa- 
ry of  his  views  on  the  Apocalypse,  .and  its  teachings  respecting  Christ's 
secoiul  advent  —  its  nearness,  and  the  nature  of  the  Millennium  that  is  to 
follow.  It  is  given  in  this  place  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  the 
volume  of  his  lectures.  It  is  a  work  of  rare  merit,  and  should  be  read 
entire]  

"  Behold,  I  como  as  a  thief.  Blessed  is  he  that  watcheth,  and  keepeth  his 
garments,  lest  ho  walk  naked,  and  they  sec  his  shame." —  Rev.  10:  15. 

This  evening,  as  I  announced,  my  Lectures  in  Exeter 
Hall  on  this  most  interesting  book  draw  to  a  close.  I  can- 
not help  repeating  that  the  weariness  I  have  felt  in  my 
researches,  and  the  exhaustion  which  I  have  endured  in  the 
delivery  of  them,  have  been  more  than  compensated  by  the 
delight  I  have  experienced  in  study,  and  the  positive  profit 
they  have  brought  to  my  own  heart.  I  have  this  day,  on 
this  first  Sabbath  of  another  year,  liaving  addressed  you  on 
the  last  Sabbath  of  the  year  that  is  closed,  to  remind  you 
that  there  will  be  a  last  darj  as  well  as  a  last  year,  and  that 
last  day  is  the  day  that  we  ought  to  anticipate,  and  realize 
more  than  any  other  day  in  our  whole  biography.  This  is 
tho  last  day  on  which  I  shall  address  you  iiere :  the  first 
Sabbath  of  a  year  that  we  have  seen  begin,  but  the  close  of 
which  who  among  us  shall  sec  ?  The  youngest  may  die ; 
the  oldest  must  die  soon :  and  there  is  not  one  in  this  vast 
congregation  that  can  insure  his  life  for  1848.  But  there 
is  not  one  that  may  not  insure  a  crown  of  glory  that  fadeth 
not  away,  by  taking  into  his  heart  the  price  and  purchase 
of  it  —  the  precious  blood  of  the  Sou  of  God. 

But  I  have  thought,  my  dear  friends,  that,  as  many  of 
those  who  regularly  assembled  in  the  morning  did  not  hear 
the  evening  lectures,  it  might  not  be  unprofitable,  if  I  avail 


196  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

myself  of  a  suggestion  made  to  me  by  a  member  of  my 
own  flock  last  Sabbath-day,  and  give  something  like  a 
resuini^  or  a  sketch  of  the  leading  points  I  have  success- 
ively brought  before  you.  In  the  morning  of  each  Sabbath, 
as  you  are  aware,  I  have  preached  on  the  distinctive  char- 
acteristics of  the  gospel  of  Jesus :  *  in  the  evenings  of  the 
successive  Sabbaths  we  have  assembled  in  this  hall  during 
nearly  six  months  that  are  now  closed,  I  have  expounded  to 
you  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  just  and  true  meaning  of  the 
Apocalypse  ;  and  I  think  that  it  will  not  be  uninstructive  if 
I  slightly  touch  on  the  various  .points  to  which  I  have  turned 
your  attention,  and  bring,  as  it  were,  the  whole  Apocalyptic 
drama  in  one  bright  vision,  as  shortly  as  I  can,  before  your 
minds. 

My  first  lecture  consisted  of  an  exposition  of  the  claims 
of  the  Apocalypse  to  occupy  its  place  in  the  sacred  canon. 
I  showed  you  the  incontestable  evidence  by  which  it  is 
proved  to  be  divine.  I  laid  before  you,  too,  the  various 
links  of  evidence  by  which  it  is  proved  to  be  the  composi- 
tion of  John,  the  beloved  disciple  who  leaned  upon  the  Sa- 
viour's breast.  I  showed  you  the  place  of  its  composition, 
Patmos ;  the  year  of  its  composition,  A.  D.  96 ;  and  then 
I  stated  what  I  conceived  to  be  the  duties  of  an  impartial 
commentator  on  the  Apocalypse  —  to  be  careful  not  to 
attempt  to  play  the  prophet  whife  discharging  the  humble 
duty  of  an  expositor  of  the  Scripture.  I  urged,  too,  that 
the  failures  of  the  past  were  no  reasons  why  there  should 
be  failures  in  the  future.  I  showed  you  that  every  wreck 
that  lies  in  the  channel  has  the  buoy  attached  to  it,  by  those 
whose  duty  it  is  to  attend  to  it,  and  by  that  wreck  other 
navies  are  preserved  from  destruction.  In  the  same  man- 
ner, every  failure  to  explain  the  Apocalypse  is  only  a  guide 
to  future  expositors,  and  affords  a  stronger  presumption  that 
the  next  attempt  shall  not  fail.  Eacli  successive  commenta- 
tor casts  light  upon  it,  and  brings  forth  truth  from  it ;  and 
as  the  day  approaches  when  the  great  drama  shall  be  closed, 
and  all  its  mysterious  contents  shall  be  made  known,  we 
shall  then  wonder  that  we  doubted  where  we  ought  to  have 

*  I  propose  publishing  a  volume  containing  my  Sabbath  morning  dis- 
courses in  Exeter  Hall. 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  197 

bclieveJ.  and  shrank  from  study  where  wo  ought  to  have 
prayerfully  and  patiently  investigated. 

In  my  next  lecture  I  laid  before  you  what  I  called  "the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Apocalypse,"  from  the  text,  "Unto 
Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own 
blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  to  God  and  his 
Father;  to  Him  be  glory  for  ever  and  ever."  I  showed  the 
distinction  that  seems  to  subsist  between  the  Gospel  according 
to  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John,  and  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  the  Apocalypse.  In  the  first  Christ  is  the  priest,  in 
the  second  Christ  is  the  priest  and  the  king.  In  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  ho  is  exhibited  with  the  cross ;  in  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  St.  John  he  is  displayed  with  many  crowns  upon 
his  head.  In  the  one,  he  has  the  suffering  to  undergo ;  in 
the  other,  he  has  the  royalty  to  receive.  In  the  one,  he  is 
in  the  midst  of  his  agony  and  bloody  sweat ;  in  the  other, 
he  is  seated  on  his  throne,  and  cherubim  and  seraphim  adore 
him.  The  one  is  the  completion  of  the  other  —  the  Gospel 
of  St.  John  would  have  been  incomplete  without  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  St.  John :  each  gives  a  profile,  both  give  the  full 
face  of  him  who  is  the  "brightness  of  the  Father's  glory 
—  the  express  imago  of  His  person."' 

In  my  third  lecture  I  endeavored  to  describe,  or  rather  to 
open,  those  symbols  which  are  known  and  revealed  in  the 
Apocalypse  by  the  name  of  the  Seals.  I  stated  that  God, 
in  revealing  things  that  were  future,  made  use  of  symbols, 
for  this  reason  :  If  there  were  no  symbols,  but  marked  pre- 
dictions of  the  most  inevitable  events,  man's  agency,  respon- 
sibility, and  free-will  would  be  hampered.  If,  again,  there 
were  no  predictions  of  the  future  at  all,  in  any  shape,  or  in 
any  way  intelligible,  there  would  be  nothing  to  cheer  man 
in  the  prospects  of  the  future,  or  to  confirm  man  in  the 
statements  of  God'g^holy  word.  He  has,  therefore,  given 
us  syml)ol3  so  dark  that  man's  freedom  and  responsibility 
may  not  be  crushed,  and  yet  so  luminous  that  the  patient 
and  prayerful  inquirer  will  find  light  if  he  will  only  study 
them.  I  explained  that  the  chief  of  these  symbols  were 
divided  into  three  great  divisions :  first,  seven  Seals,  denot- 
ing seven  successive  historical  conditions  or  states  of  the 
great  empire  in  which  the  Christian  Church  was  to  play  so 
prominent  a  ^art ;  then  seven  Trumpets ;  then  seven  Vials : 
17* 


198  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

the  seventh  Seal  being  an  epitome  of  the  seren  Trumpets, 
and  the  seventh  Trumpet  being  a  sketch  in  brief,  or  an 
epitome,  of  the  seven  Vials ;  and  the  whole  twenty-one  sym- 
bols embracing  a  complete  history  of  the  future  from  the 
year  96,  when  John  was  in  Patmos,  till  the  close  of  the 
century  that  now  is,  when  the  mystery  shall  be  complete, 
and  the  great  drama  of  mankind  shall  be  wound,  up. 

The  first  seal,  you  will  recollect,  was  thus  stated :  "I 
beheld  a  white  horse,  and  he  that  sat  on  him  had  a  bow ; 
and  a  crown  was  given  unto  liim :  and  he  went  forth  con- 
quering and  to  conquer."  I  showed  you  first,  that  the 
horse  is  used  in  this  book  as  the  symbol  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire. The  reason  I  gave  you  for  it  was  very  plain  —  the 
horse  was  the  national  symbol  of  Rome.  If  you  speak  of 
the  thistle,  you  mean  Scotland  —  if  you  speak  of  the  sham- 
rock, you  allude  to  Ireland  —  if  you  speak  of  the  rose,  you 
refer  to  England ;  so,  if  you  speak  of  the  horse  in  the  sym- 
bolic sense,  you  make  reference  to  Rome.  Rome  was  called 
the  '•'•gens  Mavortia'^  —  the  nation  of  Mars:  the  horse 
was  the  animal  consecrated,  or  sacred,  to  Mars;  and  on 
certain  Roman  coins  there  is  found  upon  the  one  side  the 
horse,  and  the  word  "  Roma"  over  it,  and  upon  the  obverse 
the  portrait  of  the  reigning  Roman  emperor. 

In  the  first  four  seals,  therefore,  I  showed  you  that  as  the 
horse  was  the  symbol  of  Rome,  Rome  must  be  the  nation 
referred  to,  and  that  the  successive  states,  or  phases,  or 
colors  of  the  horse  must  denote  the  successive  states  of  that 
empire.  White  is  the  symbol  of  prosperity,  and  the  em- 
peror is  represented  as  going  forth  conquering  and  to  con- 
quer. He  is  also  represented  as  having  a  bow  in  his  hand. 
I  showed  you  that  the  bow  was  the  symbol  of  Crete,  just  as 
the  shamrock  is  the  symbol  of  Ireland,  the  thistle  of  Scot- 
land, or  the  rose  of  England.  The  A}>©calyptic  symbol  of 
a  Roman  emperor  with  a  bow  in  his  hand  would  seem, 
therefore,  to  convey  an  allusion,  more  or  less  remote,  to 
Crete ;  and  thus  it  turns  out  in  history  that  Nerva  was  the 
first  emperor  of  Rome  who  was  of  a  Cretan  family,  and  he 
commenced  the  Cretan  dynasty ;  the  Apocalyptic  symbol 
pointing  out  the  historic  fact  with  perfect  and  minute  accu- 
racy. Thus,  then,  under  the  first  seal,  the  Roman  Empire 
is  represented  as  in  a  state  of  great  national  prosperity. 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  199 

The  words  of  the  second  seal  are  these :  "xVnd  there  went 
out  another  horse  that  was  red  :  aaid  power  was  given  to 
him  that  sat  thereon  to  take  peace  from  the  earth,  and  that 
they  shouhl  kill  one  another ;  and  there  was  given  unto  him 
a  great  sword."'  And  you  will  observe  that  in  the  original 
it  is  to  take,  not  peace,  but  the  peace  (r;;»'  sigyvi,v^  —  that  is, 
the  peace  established  under  the  previous  seal,  when  all  was 
prosperous  and  peaceful.  Red,  I  explained  to  you,  was 
the  sj'uibol  of  bloodshed :  and  I  illustrated  this  passage  by 
referring  to  the  fact  that  the  reception  of  a  sword,  in  the 
language  of  Rome,  was  equivalent  to  the  constituting  a 
person  a  pretor  —  a  pretorian-prefect,  or  one  of  the  highest 
military  officers  of  the  empire  :  the  statement  of  the  recep- 
tion of  a  sword  pointed,  therefore,  to  that  office ;  and  the 
power  of  these  officers  to  take  peace  from  the  earth,  together 
with  the  previous  part  of  the  symbol,  indicated  a  time  of 
internal  bloodshed  and  of  war.  Such  a  time  did  eventually 
take  place.  The  first  seal  extended  from  the  year  96,  when 
John  wrote  the  Apocalypse,  to  the  year  180,  commencing 
with  the  reign  of  Nerva.  and  ending  with  that  of  Mark 
Antonine.  The  second,  from  that  period  to  249,  during 
which  time  Rome  Avas  visited  with  the  most  fearful  bloodshed 
and  intestine  war. 

The  next  seal  is  thus  described:  "I  beheld,  and  lo,  a 
black  horse,  and  he  that  sat  on  him  had  a  pair  of  balances 
in  his  hand ;  and  I  heard  a  voice  in  the  midst  of  the  four 
beasts,  saying,  A  measure  of  wheat  for  a  penny,  and  three 
measures  of  barley  for  a  penny,  and  see  thou  hurt  not  the 
oil  and  the  wine."  I  showed  you  that  this  referred  to  a 
period  in  the  history  of  Rome  when  the  whole  land  was 
oppressed  l>y  injustice  —  the  balances  evidently  relating  to 
the  administration  of  the  justice  of  the  empire,  as  I  showed 
by  reference  to  the  symbol ;  and  I  historically  demonstrated 
the  fact,  that  the  grinding  exactions  of  the  governors  of 
Rome,  in  the  language  of  Gibbon,  had  brought  the  empire 
to  the  very  verge  of  exhaustion  and  ruin. 

I  then  referred  to  the  fourth  seal:  "I  looked,  and  be- 
hold, a  pale  horse :  and  his  name  that  sat  upon  him  was 
Death,  and  hell  followed  with  him.  And  power  was  given 
unto  them  over  the  fourth  part  of  the  earth,  to  kill  with  the 
sword,  and  with  hunger,  and  with  death,  and  with  the  beasts 


200  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

of  the  earth.'"  I  showed  you  that  this  '•hell''  "was  Hades, 
or  the  grave  —  I  showed,  from  historic  fact,  that  from  the 
year  248  to  the  year  2G8,  pestilence  overflowed  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land. —  "The  wild  beasts,"  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  historian,  '-from  man's  failing,  and  the  sup- 
plies of  man's  existence  being  withdrawn,  rushed  into  the 
cities  and  completed  the  havoc  that  death  had  begun;"  and 
the  symbol  of  Death  riding  on  the  pale  horse,  with  the 
grave  opening  at  his  heels  to  receive  the  victims  that  he 
mowed  down,  was  an  exact  symbolical  picture  of  the  real 
state  of  the  empire  from  the  year  248  to  the  year  268. 

Then  the  fifth  seal  was  the  spectacle  of  those  under  the 
altar  that  were  slain  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  and  for  the 
word  of  God,  saying,  "How  long?"  This  I  explained  to 
you  to  represent  the  persecutions  of  the  Christian  Church 
from  the  year  303  to  313. 

Then  we  have  the  sixth  seal,  where  some  great  change 
seems  to  have  taken  place  immediately  after  the  fifth  seal  had 
been  opened,  and  after  the  sealing  had  taken  place.  That 
change  I  showed  to  be  Rome  casting  away  its  idol-gods  — 
sweeping  the  Pantheon  of  all  its  idolized  tenantry  —  recog- 
nizing the  gospel  as  the  national  religion,  exalting  its  min- 
isters, rightly  or  wrongly,  to  the  highest  places  in  the  state ; 
and  Christianity,  from  being  the  religion  of  the  catacombs, 
the  dens,  and  caves  of  the  earth,  becoming  the  religion  of 
the  palace,  of  the  cathedral,  of  churches  magnificent  in 
architecture,  and  protected  by  the  sceptre  of  the  reigning 
monarch. 

Immediately  after  this  exaltation  of  Christianity,  there 
follows  the  sealing  of  the  144.000.  That,  as  explained  to 
you,  signifies  that  Christianity,  in  the  hours  of  its  prosper- 
ity, sufiered  more  than  it  did  in  the  days  of  its  depression 
—  that  the  gospel  was  a  purer  and  a  nobler  thing  when 
crushed  by  the  persecutions  of  Nero,  than  when  it  nestled 
beneath  the  shadow  of  the  imperial  throne  of  Constantino ; 
and,  whether  it  was  right  or  whether  it  was  wrong  thus  to 
elevate  the  gospel,  it  is  matter  of  fact  that  in  the  catacombs 
and  caves  of  the  earth  the  church  retained  her  garments 
unsullied  —  her  communion  with  her  Lord  unbroken ;  but 
the  moment  the  heads  that  were  exposed  to  the  tempests 
were  crowned  with  mitres,  and  the  catacombs  exchanged 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  201 

for  cathedrals,  she  laid  aside  her  robes  of  beauty  and  of 
glory,  put  on  the  gorgeous  dress  of  Cnssar,  became  shorn 
of  her  real  strength  and  her  attributes  of  grandeur,  and 
ground,  a  miseral)le  drudge,  at  Cicsar's  mill,  and  at  Crcsar's 
bidding.  I  am  not  called  on,  in  this  place,  to  pronounce 
whetlicr  that  elevation  were  scripturally  right  or  wrong : 
I  merely  comment  on  historic  facts,  the  sulistancc  of  which 
I  have  now  stated. 

But  in  the  midst  of  all  this  I  showed  you,  while  the  visi- 
ble churcli  tluis  enthroned  by  the  emperor  had  ceased  to  be 
scriptural,  God  was  In-inging  out  his  true  church.  The 
Apostasy  was  now  gathering  strength  every  day  —  the  visi- 
ble church  was  ceasing  to  be  the  true  church,  God  therefore 
causes  to  emerge  the  144,000  sealed  ones,  that  is,  his  own 
election,  his  own  redeemed  people  —  the  true  links  of  the 
true  succession,  the  sons  of  God  i?i  the  world,  but  not  of 
the  world. 

Now,  having  shown  you  that  the  visible  church  became 
apostate,  and  that  the  true  church  was  restricted  only  to  the 
few  or  the  handful,  then  a  series  of  judgments  was  poured 
out  upon  the  apostate  church,  described  under  the  symbolical 
figure  of  the  seven  trumpets.  I  may  here  digress  to  ob- 
serve tliat  God  has  thus  dealt  with  nations  in  almost  every 
part  of  their  existence.  You  recollect  that  passage  in 
Amos,  where  God  is  about  to  judge  his  people  for  their 
manifold  transgressions  (Amos  4 :  G — 12).  Now,  if  I 
should  classify  these  verses  under  Apocalyj)tic  symbols,  you 
would  see  the  complete  harmony  that  exists  in  God's  deal- 
ings in  all  dispensations  of  his  grace.  Thus,  in  verse  G, 
there  is  the  first  trumpet :  —  "I  have  also  given  you  clean- 
ness of  teeth  in  all  your  cities,  and  want  of  bread  in  all 
your  places ;  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  me,  saith  the 
Lord  God."  Thus  one  trumpet  sounds:  but  the  result  is 
no  repentance.  It  is  therefore  followed  by  the  second 
trum])et,  if  I  may  use  the  expression  :  —  "  And  also  I  have 
withholdcn  the  rain  from  you  when  there  were  yet  three 
months  to  the  harvest :  and  I  caused  it  to  rain  upon  one 
city,  and  caused  it  not  to  rain  upon  another  city ;  one  piece 
was  rained  upon,  and  the  piece  whereupon  it  rained  not 
withered.  So  two  or  three  cities  wandered  unto  one  city  to 
drink  water ;  but  they  were  not  satisfied :  yet  have  ye  not 


202  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

returned  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord."  There  is  the  second 
trumpet.  Then  the  third  trumpet  sounds  :  —  "I  huve  smit- 
ten you  Avith  blasting  and  mildew  :  ^Yhen  jour  gardens,  and 
your  vineyards,  and  your  fig-trees,  and  your  olive-trees  in- 
creased, the  palmer-worm  devoured  them  :  yet  have  ye  not 
returned  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord."  Then  the  fourth 
trumpet  sounds:  —  "I  have  sent  among  you  the  pestilence 
after  the  manner  of  Egypt :  your  young  men  have  I  slain 
with  the  sword,  ;iud  have  taken  away  your  horses ;  and  I 
have  made  the  stink  of  your  camps  to  come  up  unto  your 
nostrils :  yet  have  ye  not  returned  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord." 
There  is  another  trumpet :  —  "I  have  overthrown  some  of 
you  as  God  overthrew  Sodom  and  Gomorrah,  and  ye  Avere 
as  a  firebrand  plucked  out  of  the  burning :  yet  have  ye  not 
returned  unto  me,  saith  the  Lord."  There  is  the  sixth 
trumpet.  Now  what  is  the  seventh? — "Therefore  thus 
will  I  do  unto  thee,  0  Israel :  and  because  I  will  do  this 
unto  thee,  prepare  to  meet  thy  God,  0  Israel."  There  is 
the  sounding  of  the  seventh.  God's  judgments  in  the  past 
are  all  in  harmony  with  God's  judgments  in  the  future ; 
both  are  his  commissioners  to  walk  the  world,  and  do  the 
behests  of  his  will. 

I  endeavored  to  open  up  to  you  the  meaning  of  the  seven 
trumpets  in  the  same  manner  that  I  explained  the  seven 
seals,  by  historic  facts.  I  showed  you  that  trumpets,  in  the 
Levitical  economy,  Avere  used,  first  to  proclaim  feasts  or 
festivals  to  the  people,  or  to  proclaim  war  against  the  enemy. 
So  they  are  used  in  the  Apocalypse.  The  first  trumpet 
sounded  after  Christendom  had  become  apostate,  and  the 
judgments  of  that  trumpet  Ave  read  fell  upon  the  Roman  em- 
pire in  the  shape  of  "hail  and  storm:  "  that  is,  desolating 
and  destructive  judgments,  mingled  Avith  blood  or  bloodshed, 
and  they  Avere  cast  upon  the  earth  :  '  •  and  the  third  part  of 
trees  was  burnt  up,  and  all  green  grass  was  burnt  up." 
You  read  that  Alaric  the  Goth  burst  upon  the  empire  at  this 
time,  swept  it  Avith  his  victorious  sword,  deluged  it  Avith 
blood,  and  it  almost  fell  beneath  the  severity  of  the  on- 
slaught. We  read  that  the  second  angel  sounded,  "and, 
as  it  were,  a  great  mountain  burning  Avith  fire  was  cast  into 
the  sea,  and  the  third  part  of  the  sea  became  blood ;  and 
the  third  part  of  the  creatures  that  were  in  the  sea,  and  had 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  203 

life,  died ;  and  the  third  part  of  the  ships  were  destroyed.'' 
I  showed  jou  that,  under  this  trumpet,  the  maritime  shores 
of  the  Roman  cmi)ire,  its  ships  and  fleets,  were  the  subjects 
of  suffering.  I  opened  history,  and  read  that,  as  Alaric  fell 
upon  the  land,  and  swept  it  with  fire  and  deluged  it  with 
blood,  in  order  to  fulfil  the  symbols  of  the  second  trumpet; 
so  Gcneseric,  according  to  this  trumpet,  fell  upon  the  ships 
and  maritime  i)Owcr  of  Rome.  Three  times  the  fleets  of 
the  empire  were  opposed  to  him  —  three  times  they  were 
almost  annihilated ;  and,  as  if  to  show  the  mysterious 
nature  of  his  mission,  when  his  pilot  asked  Geneseric  to 
what  coast  should  he  steer?  the  reply  of  the  Goth  was, 
"Leave  that  to  the  winds  of  heaven  —  they  will  waft  us  to 
the  guilty  coast."  He  desolated  every  island,  and  smote 
with  destruction  every  shore,  and  totally  exterminated  the 
fleets  of  Rome.  Suddenly  he  drops  from  the  stage,  and  all 
again  is  still. 

The  third  trumpet  sounds:  "And  there  fell  a  great  star 
from  heaven,  burning  as  it  were  a  lamp,  and  it  fell  upon 
the  third  part  of  the  rivers,  and  upon  the  fountains  of 
waters."  I  showed  you  that  the  rivers  and  fountains  of 
waters,  wherever  they  are  alluded  to  in  the  Apocalypse, 
denote  the  people  that  dwell  upon  the  banks  of  the  rivers  — 
the  great  rivers  of  Europe,  the  Danube,  the  Rhine,  and  the 
Po.  Accordingly  avc  read,  when  the  third  trumpet  sounds, 
that  Attila,  who  was  called  the  Scourge  of  God,  instantly 
descended  upon  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and 
the  Po,  and  swept  from  them  every  nation  that  opposed  him, 
and  fell  like  a  burning  mountain  from  the  sky,  upon  every 
section  of  the  geographical  territory  so  graphically  described 
in  these  symbols. 

The  fourth  trumpet  sounded  :  "  And  the  third  part  of  the 
sun  was  smitten,  and  the  third  part  of  the  moon,  and  the 
tliird  part  of  the  stars :  so  as  the  third  part  of  them  was 
darkened,  and  the  day  shone  not  for  a  third  part  of  it,  and 
the  night  likewise."  I  explained  to  you  that  the  sun  and 
moon  in  the  Apocalypse  denote  always  the  imperial  or  sove- 
reign power.  Accordingly,  we  read  in  history  that  Odoacer, 
the  last  of  the  Gothic  dynasty,  marched  upon  Rome,  after 
Alaric  had  fiiUen  upon  the  land,  and  Geneseric  upon  the 
sea,  and  Attila  upon  the  rivers ;  and  swept  the  whole  impe- 


20J:  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

rial  territory ;  tlie  sun  was  darkened :  and  accordingly  we 
read  that  Odoacer  marched  upon  Rome,  the  capital  itself; 
commanded,  with  his  drawn  sword,  that  Augustulus,  the 
emperor  that  then  reigned,  should  abdicate  his  throne,  re- 
sign the  insignia  of  sovereignty,  and  that  all  the  emblems 
of  empire  should  be  transferred  to  Constantinople.  Here 
we  have  the  sun  darkened,  or  the  imperial  power  withdra^vn. 
And  when  the  fifth  trumpet-  sounded,  we  read  that  "A 
star  fell  from  heaven,  and  to  him  was  given  the  key  of  the 
bottomless  pit.  And  he  opened  the  bottomless  pit;  and 
there  arose  a  smoke  out  of  the  pit,  as  the  smoke  of  a  great 
furnace ;  and  the  sun  and  the  air  Avere  darkened  by  reason 
of  the  smoke  of  the  pit.  And  there  came  out  of  the  smoke 
locusts  upon  tlie  earth :  and  unto  them  was  given  power,  as 
the  scorpions  of  the  earth  have  power,"  &c.  (Rev.  9 :  1 — 12.) 
I  showed  that  this  star  falling  from  the  firmament  —  a  star 
denoting  rank  in  office  —  was  Mohammed,  who  was  the 
descendant  of  a  royal  but  degraded  house.  He  retired  to  a 
cave  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mecca,  where  he  concocted  that 
horrible  scheme  of  delusion  and  blasphemy  which  has  over- 
spread vast  portions  of  xisia  and  of  Europe  ;  which  depends 
for  its  success  on  the  cimeter  of  its  preacher,  and  on  the 
sensuality  of  its  auditory.  We  read  that  the  result  of  it 
was  that  the  whole  sky  was  darkened  by  this  moral  smoke. 
The  locusts,  I  showed  you,  by  the  strange  accompaniments 
by  which  they  are  characterized,  represent  the  Saracens  rush- 
ing to  the  battle.  "  Their  shapes,"  we  are  told,  "  were  like 
unto  horses  prepared  unto  battle ;  and  on  their  heads  were 
as  it  were  crowns  like  gold,  and  their  faces  were  as  the  faces 
of  men  ;  and  they  had  hair  as  the  hair  of  women,  and  their 
teeth  were  as  the  teeth  of  lions.  And  they  had  breastplates 
as  it  were  breastplates  of  iron ;  and  the  sound  of  their  wings 
was  as  the  sound  of  chariots  of  many  horses  running  to 
battle.  And  they  had  tails  like  unto  scorpions,  and  there 
Avere  stings  in  their  tails,  and  their  power  Avas  to  hurt  men 
five  months."  You  may  remember  my  explanation  of  that. 
First,  the  star  was  Mohammed ;  secondly,  the  smoke  Avas 
Mohammedanism  ;  thirdly,  the  Apocalyptic  locusts  are  evi- 
dently symbols ;  because,  according  to  natural  history,  the 
picture  is  most  absurd;  according  to  symbolic  or  hiero- 
glyphic description,  it  is  most  expressive.     The  locusts  were, 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  205 

I  showed  you,  the  Saracens,  and  the  reason  they  are  likened 
to  locusts  is,  the  locusts  come  never  singly,  but  in  swarms, 
and  from  the  east  —  the  Saracens  burst  in  innumerable 
hordes  upon  the  length  and  breadth  of  Europe.  They  had 
crowns  upon  their  heads  —  the  Arab's  aphorism  says,  that 
"he  has  his  turban  for  his  crown."  They  had  "the  faces 
of  men."  They  were  characterized  by  a  peculiarity  no 
Roman  had  —  namely,  the  moustache  worn  upon  tlic  up|)er 
lip,  wliich  gave  them  an  appearance  of  fierceness.  They 
"  had  hair  as  the  hair  of  women."  The  Arabs  were  distin- 
guished by  their  long  flowing  hair.  In  addition  to  this, 
"  the  sound  of  their  wings  was  as  the  sound  of  chariots  of 
many  horses  running  to  battle."  Cavalry  was  their  strength 
and  main  reliance.  "  And  they  had  tails  like  unto  scorpi- 
ons, and  there  were  stings  in  their  tails,  and  their  power 
was  to  hurt  men  five  months."  The  expression  "  power  "  in 
the  original  is  i:niioi>i^  which  means  "authority,"  the  ofiicial 
authority  was  theirs.  The  allusion  to  tails  is  thus  explained. 
In  one  of  the  earlier  battles  of  the  Saracens,  the  sfcindard 
•was  lost ;  their  leader  instantly  cut  off  his  horse's  tail, 
placed  it  upon  a  pole,  told  his  troops  that  must  be  their 
standard  when  they  marched  to  battle,  and  ever  afterward, 
to  this  day,  the  horse's  tail  lias  been  the  Turkish  standard 
—  a  pacha  with  one,  two,  or  three  tails,  denoting  the  rank, 
office,  or  authority  that  he  holds  —  and  their  actual  hurting 
is  in  the  history  of  their  injustice  and  oppression  ;  and  I 
showed,  by  the  most  minute  analysis,  that  this  trumpet  con- 
tains the  description  of  the  spread  of  Mohammedanism  and 
Saracen  conquest  as  a  judgment  upon  an  apostate  and  a 
God-denying  church. 

Tlie  si.xth  trutui)et  sounds,  which,  as  I  proved,  describes 
what  was  called,  in  other  portions  of  the  Apocalj^pse,  the 
Turkish  wo.  And  there  3'ou  remember  that  the  Turks 
passed  the  great  river  Euphrates,  received  the  permission 
from  Him  who  alone  had  power  to  give  it,  to  come  "  forth 
for  a  day,  a  month,  and  a  year,  and  the  numl)er  of  the  army 
of  the  horsemen  was  two  hundred  thousand  thou.sand  :  and 
I  heard  the  number  of  them."  I  showed  that  this  w-as  ful- 
filled in  the  successive  triunijihs  of  the  Turks  who  hail  re- 
ceived the  jNIohammedan  delusion,  and  marched  over  great 
portions  of  Asia  and  Europe,  spreading  havoc  wherever 
18 


206  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

they  exhibited  their  presence.  I  stated,  also,  that  the  allu- 
sion here  made  to  smoke,  and  brimstone,  and  fire,  might  be 
an  allusion  to  the  fact  that  for  the  first  time,  on  a  large  and 
gigantic  scale,  artillery  was  used  at  the  siege  of  Constanti- 
nople by  the  Turks,  and  gunpowder,  though  it  was  invented 
several  years  before,  then  first  came  to  be  employed  on  a 
large  scale,  and  to  play  a  prominent  part  in  modern  Avar- 
fare.  I  showed  that  in  that  siege  Constantinople  fell,  and 
thus  the  mistress  of  the  East  was  laid  prostrate  upon  the 
ruins  of  the  mistress  of  the  West  —  the  Apostasy  reigned 
in  the  Christian  church  —  Mohammedanism  overwhelmed 
the  eastern  portion  of  Europe  —  a  world  without  God  — 
men  without  hope  —  a  church  without  religion  —  and  all 
things  prognosticating  some  fearful  catastrophe ;  so  much  so, 
that  many  of  the  Christians  of  that  time  anticipated  the 
speedy  arrival  of  the  judgment-day,  and  the  appearing  of 
the  great  white  throne. 

Such,  then,  is  a  brief  sketch  of  my  exposition  of  the 
Seven  Seals  and  the  Seven  Trumpets.  I  know  that  many 
of  the  statements  I  have  made  will  appear  to  some  of  you 
almost  unwarranted,  because  some  of  you  have  not  heard 
the  successive  facts  by  which  I  have  proved  them ;  but  I 
am  now  giving  only  a  sketch,  merely  to  refresh  the  memo- 
ries of  those  who  have  attended  the  delivery  of  the  whole, 
and  not  to  carry  conviction  on  the  present  occasion. 

The  next  great  event  we  read  of,  is  that  glorious  one,  the 
blessed  Reformation.  The  church  had  become  apostate  — 
destruction  was  its  merit,  reformation  was  God's  gracious 
purpose.  I  gave  you  a  picture  of  the  church  before  the 
Reformation — the  pope  worshipped  as  God  —  the  Roman 
church  rampant  and  supremo  —  kings,  puppets  in  the  hands 
of  the  pope  —  their  diadems  kicked  from  their  heads  by  his 
pontifical  foot  —  some  of  them  deposed  from  their  thrones. 
And,  I  may  here  remark,  I  have  always  felt  this,  that  the 
danger  of  the  church  of  Christ,  if  we  may  judge  of  the 
present  and  the  future  from  the  past,  is  not  the  popular 
power,  nor  the  kingly  power,  or,  as  it  is  called  by  some,  the 
Erastian  power,  but  I  solemnly  believe  it  to  be  from  the 
priestly  power ;  little  do  I  fear  from  the  people,  nor  do  I 
fear  much  from  the  crown,  but  I  have  much  fear  of  the 
priest.     Watch  the  priests  and  the  people  and  the  crown, 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  207 

pray  fox'  all  three,  but  protest  against  the  usurpations  of 
any  of  them. 

The  Reformation  then  came,  and  Milner  states  that  "  after 
ages  of  superstition,  we  see  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  rising 
over  Europe  with  healing  under  his  \Yings.'' 

You  may  recollect  the  interesting  sketch  that  I  gave  of 
the  Reformation.  Leo  X.  was  enjoying  uninterrupted  and 
undisturbed  supremacy,  when  a  poor  Augustinian  monk 
lays  hold  of  a  dusty  volume  Avhich  had  not  been  opened 
for  centuries,  in  the  library  of  the  university  of  Erfurt. 
Startled  by  its  appearance,  he  xinclasps  it :  the  unclasping 
of  that  book  was  the  first  act  of  the  Reformation,  and  in 
that  book  la}'  all  the  privileges,  the  freedom,  the  hopes,  the 
blessings  that  you  possess.  If  ^Martin  Luther,  humnnly 
speaking,  had  not  unclasped  that  volume,  your  grand 
philosophy,  your  great  discoveries,  your  steam-engines,  and 
your  steamboats,  and  your  electric  telegraphs,  and  your  rail- 
roads, would  never  have  existed.  0  scientific  scorner,  little 
dost  thou  know  the  debt  that  thou  owcst  to  that  poor 
Augustinian  monk  in  the  convent  of  Erfurt !  When  he 
perused  the  contents  of  the  Bible,  he  discovered  in  it  truths 
that  he  had  never  heard  of  before  :  he  saw  that  the  breviary 
and  the  missal  contained  mere  fragments  of  the  Bible,  and 
he  read  and  road  again ;  he  discovered  that  glorious  truth 
which  was  the  lever  that  lifted  Europe  from  its  thraldom, 
and  shook  the  very  throne  of  the  pontiff,  "we  are  justified 
by  fiith  alone  in  the  glorious  righteousness  and  finished 
sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  When  ho  discov- 
ered this,  the  hope  of  souls,  he  could  not  be  silent  —  he 
began  to  speak  out.  The  pope  tried  to  terrify  hira  by  his 
decrees,  and  to  alarm  iiim  by  his  thunders :  Luther  contin- 
ued for  some  time  doubting ;  but  at  length  he  discovered 
that  the  pope  was  not  Christ's  minister,  but  Antichrist,  and 
that  Popery  was  not  the  church  at  all.  but  the  Apostasy. 
As  soon  as  he  was  satisfied  of  this,  he  feared  no  man's  fiice, 
he  cared  for  no  man's  frown,  he  went  like  the  cannon-shot 
through  all  opposition  riglit  to  his  coui's<j,  feeling  that  there 
was  none  to  judge  him  but  God,  and  none  could  stop  him 
when  God  had  given  him  his  mission.  The  result  of  Martin 
Luther's  appeal  was  that  all  Europe  shook,  as  if  beneath 
the  vibrations  of  an   earthquake,  — Truth,  long  chained, 


208  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

burst  its  shackles  —  even  the  Yatican  itself  rung  -with 
strange  and  nij^sterious  echoes,  indicating  that  an  unex- 
pected visitor  had  come  into  the  midst  of  it,  and  reasoned 
in  the  pontiff's  hearing  "  of  righteousness,  temperance,  and 
judgment  to  come."  The  echoes  of  that  monk's  voice 
reached  England,  and  sounded  loud  and  long  amid  the  con- 
vents and  monasteries  of  Scotland,  till,  at  last,  the  senti- 
ment he  uttered  in  a  corner  became  tlie  confession  of  Eu- 
rope, and  truth,  planteil  as  a  living  seed  b3'-  that  monk,  grew, 
sometimes  watered  by  the  blood  of  martyrs,  until  it  shot  up 
into  those  glorious  trees  which  overspread  England,  Scot- 
land, and  Germany,  and  mighty  sections  of  America,  be- 
neath which  the  nations  find  shelter,  and  Christians  food 
that  is  sweet  and  pleasant  to  their  taste.  Deeply  are  we 
indebted  to  Luther :  we  regret  the  faults  witli  which  he  was 
chargeable  as  a  man,  but  we  bless  God  for  the  excellence  by 
which  he  was  distinguished  as  a  saint ;  and  that  church,  or 
rather  that  section  of  a  churcli,  which  denounces,  in  the 
lancruasie  of  one,  Luther  and  Jewell  as  "irreverent  dissent- 
ers,"  and  that  proclaims  the  Reformation,  in  the  language 
of  another,  to  be  like  "  a  limb  badly  set,  and  which  needs 
to  be  broken  again,"  and  to  be  a  calamity,  a  curse  rather 
than  a  blessing,  has  lost  its  first-love,  and  has  need  to  do 
the  work  of  repentance,  and  arise  and  go  to  her  Father, 
and  ask  forgiveness  for  the  past  and  grace  for  the  future. 

After  describing  the  lleformation,  you  will  recollect  I 
gave  you  a  sketch  of  the  two  witnesses;  which  I  explained 
to  be  a  retrospective  sketch  of  the  church  of  Christ  during 
the  dominion  of  the  Apostasy,  beginning  with  the  time  when 
the  sealing  vision  took  place,  and  terminating  only  with  the 
Reformation.  I  mentioned  that  they  were  two,  because 
fewer  than  two  witnesses  do  not  constitute  a  valid  testimony, 
and  two  to  denote  that  the  people  of  God  Avould  be  reduced 
to  the  lowest  possible  ebb  in  the  course  of  a  dominant  and 
supreme  Apostasy.  The  two  witnesses  I  traced  first  in 
the  Eastern  line,  through  those  called  the  Paulicians :  next 
in  tlie  Western  line,  through  Augustine,  Vigilantius,  Claude 
of  Turin,  Agobard,  Peter  Waldo,  until  both  lines  met  in  the 
Waldenses,  and  merged  in  the  glories  of  the  Reformation 
itself  You  recollect,  also,  how  I  explained  the  slaughter 
of  the  witnesses.     I  showed  that,   because  the   witnesses 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  209 

were  symbolic  persons,  their  death  must  be  symbolic,  and 
their  resurrection  must  be  symbolic  also.  I  sho\Yed  you 
that  in  the  year  1513,  the  last  Council  of  Latcran  met  in 
the  broad  or  prominent  place  of  Christendom,  namely,  in 
the  Latcran,  at  Rome.  I  showed  you  that  they  issued  a 
summons  to  all  the  heretics,  Bohemians,  "Waldenses,  and 
Wickljffites,  to  appear  in  the  Council  in  the  next  year,  on 
the  5th  of  May,  1514,  and  there  defend  themselves,  or 
submit  to  the  church.  I  showed  you,  by  the  testimony  of 
historians  of  the  Christian  church,  that  they,  the  Protest- 
ants or  witnesses,  were  all  but  extinct,  and  when  the  sum- 
mons was  issued,  not  one  responded.  Now  it  is  a  remark- 
able fact,  that  the  '"heretics,"  that  is,  true  Christians,  were 
never,  but  on  this  one  occasion,  summoned  to  a  Council  at 
.which  they  did  not  appear.  Luther  appeared  when  sum- 
moned, both  at  Worms  and  at  Spires;  lluss  appeared  at 
Constance;  and  so  with  others;  but  at  this  Council  no 
appearance  was  made.  On  May  5,  1514,  the  Council  met. 
It  was  asked,  "were  the  heretics  present,  personally  or  by 
deputy?"  All  was  silent,  and  the  orator  of  the  Council 
mounted  the  pulpit,  and,  amid  the  plaudits  of  all  present, 
pronounced  the  words,  ^^Ncnio  rccbonat ;  null  us  obsistiL^' 
''There  is  not  one  that  makes  opposition,  or  that  manifests 
any  protest  against  us."  And  instantly  it  is  added,  when 
the  Avitnesses  were  slain,  "they  of  the  nations" — and  I 
pointed  out  the  fact  that  the  idea  of  representation  is  con- 
veyed in  the  original  —  the  representatives  of  the  nations 
sitting  in  the  Council,  celebrated  feasts,  sent  presents  to 
each  other,  and  congratulated  themselves  that  the  witnesses 
were  slain  — -they  flattered*  themselves  that  heresy  was 
extinct,  and  the  church  triumphant. 

The  witnesses,  we  are  told,  were  to  lie  unburied  for  three 
and  a  half  prophetic  days,  that  is,  for  three  and  a  half  literal 
years.  Now  from  May  5,  1514,  to  October  31,  1517, 
is  precisely  three  years  and  a  half;  did  anything  take  place 
about  the  end  of  that  period  which  would  answer  to  the 
resurrection  of  the  witnesses?  On  that  very  day,  Octo- 
ber 31,  1517,  Martin  Luther  posted  his  ninety-five  theses 
on  the  gates  of  the  great  church  of  AVittemberg ;  in  Avhich 
he  asserted  Protestant  truth,  and  protested  against  Popish 
error :  that  was  the  first  sound  of  the  Reformation.  The 
18* 


210  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

resuscitated  witnesses  now  rose  from  the  tomb,  ascended  in 
the  sky,  were  prosperous,  and  dominant,  and  great,  in  the 
presence  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

I  tlien  illustrated  the  same  church  of  Christ  in  the  Apoc- 
alyptic symbol,  called  the  woman  in  the  wilderness.  I 
explained  that  the  woman  was  another  symbol  employed  to 
denote  the  true  church  of  Christ  during  the  almost  universal 
prevalence  of  the  Apostasy,  having  fled  into  the  wilderness, 
there  to  be  concealed  for  12G0  years.  I  showed  that  both 
these  symbols  were  meant  to  impress  upon  us  the  nature  of 
Christ's  true  church:  it  is  compared  to  "the  woman  in  the 
wilderness,"  or  to  "the  witnesses  in  sackcloth,"  to  denote 
that  the  true  church  is  not  the  magnificent  thing  that 
charms  the  sense,  but  the  spiritual  and  moral  thing  that  is 
only  to  be  spiritually  and  morally  discerned. 

After  describing  this,  I  showed  you  that  the  wild  beast 
from  the  abyss,  delineated  in  chapter  13,  and  characterized 
by  attributes  so  clear  and  unequivocal,  that  if  it  were 
described  in  the  page  of  history,  the  Pope  of  Rome  would 
instantly  present  himself  to  the  mind  of  any  person,  as  the 
individual  intended  to  be  represented  by  these  symbols.  I 
pointed  out  that  the  Church  of  Rome  has  been  characterized 
by  apostasy  from  the  truth,  and  that  it  has  been  literally 
"drunk  with  the  blood  of  saints,"  and  has  persecuted  and 
proscribed  the  children  of  God  in  every  country  and  in 
every  age.  It  is  the  same  as  the  little  horn  of  Daniel,  the 
seer  that  had  eyes  and  saw;  it  is  the  same  with  the  Man  of 
Sin  of  St.  Paul,  in  2  Thess.;  it  is  a  graphic  description  of 
him  whose  tyranny  and  ambition  have  been  his  most  dom- 
inant characteristics,  and  whose,sanguinary  cruelty  has  been 
his  greatest  and  most  branding  sin.  Then  I  shoAved  you 
what  the  other  wild  beast  Avas  that  was  like  unto  the  first. 
This  I  showed  to  be  the  Papal  clergy,  the  Jesuits,  the 
janissaries  of  the  Pope  ^ —  a  body  perfectly  distinct  from  the 
Pope  —  consolidated  by  celibacy  into  one  powerful  organi- 
zation, having  nothing  that  unites  them  to  the  world,  but  all 
that  unites  them  to  the  church  —  having  no  circles  of  their 
own  to  distract  them  in  their  homes  —  only  one  great  object 
to  contend  and  to  struggle  for,  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope, 
and  of  the  church  of  Avhich  he  is  the  ruler. 

I  showed  you  next  that  the  image  of  the  beast  was  the 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  211 

General  Councils  formed  of  the  collected  cardinals,  bishops, 
and  clergy  of  the  church  of  Rome  —  the  representatives 
of  the  Pope:  and  the  Avord  here  used,  namely,  ely-wy,  is 
applied  to  the  General  Council  by  writers.  I  also  defined 
the  Avild  beast  by  one  remarkable  feature;  it  is  stated,  "  his 
number  is  the  number  of  a  man,"  and  that  number  is  said 
to  be  6ijij.  I  explained  that  the  Greeks  and  Romans  had  no 
numerals,  as  we  have,  but  they  denoted  their  numerals  by 
the  letters  of  their  alphabet  —  «,  one,  ,^,  two,  j-,  three,  and  so 
on ;  then  a  point  over  any  letter  makes  ten.  Thus,  if  you 
take  the  Greek  letters  that  make  up  66(j,  and  put  them  to- 
gether, they  form  A,  »,  r,  f,  (,  >-,  o,  «,  hcTfiioi,  and  there  is  no 
other  word  corresponding  to  it.  There  are  many  words  that 
are  an  approximation  to  it,  but  there  are  plain  reasons  for 
rejecting  them,  and  the  most  powerful  reasons  for  believing 
that  this  word,  Aitrfn-os,  is  the  true  word  here  intended. 
The  church  of  Rome  is  marked  by  Latin  canons,  Latin 
missal,  Latin  breviary,  Latin  Bible  —  Latin  bulls,  ency- 
clicals, decrees,  canons:  it  is  emphatically  the  Latin  church 
—  the  Man  of  Sin  —  the  Antichrist  —  the  wild  beast  from 
the  abyss. 

After  having  given  you  a  description  of  the  great  charac- 
teristics of  this  church,  I  proceeded  to  give  you  an  exposi- 
tion of  the  Seven  "S'ials.  The  first  vial,  we  find,  was  poured 
out,  l)y  the  angel  commissioned  to  do  so,  upon  the  Roman 
earth ;  the  result  of  its  effusion  we  read  in  chapter  16  : 
"  There  fell  a  noisome  and  grievous  sore  upon  the  men 
wliich  had  the  mark  of  the  l)cast,  and  upon  them  which 
worshipped  his  image."  I  showed  you  that  that  sore  waa 
that  dreadful  scourge,  the  French  Revolution ;  and  that 
those  who  had  so  martyred  the  saints  then  felt  in  their  turn 
that  they  that  throw  the  arrow  of  persecution  always  receive 
it  again,  sooner  or  later,  into  their  own  bosoms.  This  sore 
fell  upon  the  capital  of  the  earth,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the 
church,  and  the  scene  that  accompanied  its  pouring  out  I 
need  not  recapitulate. 

The  second  vial  was  poured  out  upon  the  sea;  and,  just 
as  we  explained  "  tlie  burning  mountain"  falling  into  the 
sea  to  mean  the  destruction  of  the  maritime  and  naval 
powers  of  Rome,  so  must  we  consistently  explain  the  pour- 
ing out  of  this  vial  upon  the  sea.     What,  then,  took  place? 


212  LECTURES    OF    DE.    GUMMING. 

We  read  that,  immediately  after  the  great  outburst  of  the 
French  Revolution,  all  the  naval  forces  and  fleets  that 
France  could  muster  against  our  country,  as  her  only  hope 
of  destroying  us,  were  swept  from  the  sea  in  rapid  succes- 
sion. Her  islands  and  colonies  —  St.  Domingo  and  others 
—  became  the  scenes  of  servile  and  terrible  warfare :  the 
French,  on  this  occasion,  exhibited  a  very  strange  pecu- 
liarity of  human  nature ;  they  proclaimed,  at  their  Revo- 
lution, equality  of  all  the  members  of  the  whole  human 
family;  the  blacks  in  St.  Domingo,  their  most  powerful 
colony,  caught  the  sentiment,  and  believed  it,  too ;  and  they 
proclaimed  equality  for  all.  But  it  seems  that  the  French 
meant,  when  they  proclaimed  liberty  and  equality  for  all, 
for  those  only  whose  faces  were  bleached  by  a  northern  cli- 
mate ;  for  they  excluded  all  those  whose  countenances  had 
the  least  tinge  of  a  southern  sun.  This  is  just  the  feature 
that  some  of  our  American  brethren  in  the  Southern  States 
exhibit  at  the  present  day.  There  the  black  man  is  not 
permitted  to  travel  in  the  same  coach,  or  the  same  steam- 
boat, or  railway-carriage,  with  the  white  man,  nor  even  to 
approach  the  same  communion-table,  where  one  would  sup- 
pose all  distinctions  of  caste  were  utterly  annihilated, — as 
if  Christ  died  for  the  white  and  not  for  the  black.  Shame 
upon  those  ministers  of  the  gospel,  then,  who  know  it,  and 
do  not  protest  against  it ;  and  still  more  so  on  those  Avho 
sanction  it  because  it  supports  them.  I  think,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  if  I  were  there,  I  should  show  the  greater  prefer- 
ence to  the  black  men  rather  than  to  the  white,  upon  that 
beautiful  principle  of  the  gospel,  that  the  weakest  ought  to 
be  first  supported. 

The  very  first  effect  of  tiie  action  of  this  second  vial  was, 
that  all  the  colonies  of  France  were  lost  to  her,  and 
her  navies  annihilated.  The  victories  of  the  Nile,  Cape 
St.  Vincent,  and  Trafalgar,  and  many  others,  the  most 
splendid  in  any  country's  annals  upon  earth,  were  gained 
by  our  own  country,  to  whom  seems  to  have  been  intrusted 
the  dread  mission  of  pouring  out  this  vial.  It  would  occupy 
too  much  of  your  time  were  I,  in  this  syllabus,  to  recount 
all  the  brilliant  triumphs  of  our  country  on  the  ocean,  or 
the  names  of  that  cluster  of  illustrious  admirals  who 
appeared  about  this  time  —  men  whose  appearance  on  the 


1 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  213 

ocean  was  the  prelude  of  victory  to  our  arms,  and  the  signal 
of  confidence  to  our  sailors.  Napoleon  cried  out,  "  Let  me 
have  ships  and  a  navy,  and  perfidious  Albion  will  be 
crushed:  but  no  sooner  had  he  ol)tained  them,  than  they 
were  burned  in  the  harbor,  or  blown  from  the  deep.  The 
reason  of  this  was  not  that  we  had  braver  seamen,  or  greater 
heroism,  but  that  God  had  pronounced  the  doom  on  the 
guilty  nation,  and  all  the  power  and  bravery  of  France, 
sustained  by  the  consummate  skill  of  Napoleon,  could  not 
avert  it. 

The  third  vial,  we  read,  was  poured  out  upon  the  river's ; 
and,  accordingly,  Ave  have  in  history  the  evidence  of  the 
fearful  scenes  of  bloodshed  which  soon  took  place  upon  the 
banks  of  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and  all  the  great  rivers  of 
continental  Europe :  in  fact,  there  was  not  a  capital  from 
jNIoscow  to  ^Madrid,  from  St.  Petersburg  to  Paris,  that  was  not 
blazing  beneath  the  ilanies  of  the  French  invasion ;  nor  a 
city  on  the  Danube,  the  Rhine,  or  the  Po,  that  did  not  give 
evidence  of  the  action  of  some  terrible  judgment  upon  the 
earth. 

The  fourth  vial  was  poured  out  upon  the  sun.  I  told  you 
that  the  sun  denotes,  in  Apocalyptic  symbols,  as  I  have 
explained  before,  the  kingly  power.  Ilei'e,  then,  the  sun  is 
said  to  scorch  the  nations  of  the  earth.  This  has  been 
explained  by  Mr.  Elliott,  and  I  think  justly,  to  be  the  power 
given  to  that  imperial  sun.  Napoleon,  to  scorch,  that  is, 
severely  punish  the  nations  of  the  earth,  in  just  and  right- 
eous retribution.  It  is  surely  allusive  to  the  manner  of 
his  doing  so,  since  we  read  that  he  was  called  by  his  own 
soldiers  •'  the  little  sun;''  his  battles  were  signalized  by  the 
rolling  fire  of  musketry  and  artillery,  which  last  he  brought 
into  the  field  to  an  extent  unprecedented  in  the  history  of 
European  warfare  ;  and  upon  this  he  depended  so  much  that 
he  called  artillery  his  "  right  arm."  lie  may  justly  be  said 
to  have  scorched  the  nations  of  the  earth,  literally  and 
figuratively,  too.  Having  done  his  work,  he  passed  from  the 
stage ;  for  Napoleon  had  liis  mission,  and  when  he  had  done 
it,  he  was  swept  away  in  order  to  make  room  for  other 
agencies.  His  rise,  his  empire,  and  his  retreat,  are  alike 
supernatural. 

The  fifth  vial  was  poured  out  upon  the  throne  of  the 


214  LECTUKES   OF   DK.    GUMMING. 

beast.  I  showed  in  a  previous  lecture,  that  this  wild  beast 
is  the  symbol  of  the  Pope :  is  there,  then,  coincident  with 
this  symbol  in  prophecy,  a  fact  in  history  which  shows  that 
the  Papal  power,  in  its  central  seat,  was  visited,  about  this 
time,  with  any  signal  and  overwhelming  judgments?  We 
read  in  every  history  that  the  marshals  of  Napoleon 
appeared  in  the  midst  of  the  sacerdotal  capital  —  burst  upon 
the  Pope  and  his  cardinals  —  took  the  ring,  that  indicated 
his  marriage  with  the  church,  from  the  Pope's  finger  — 
marched  him  to  Paris  a  humble  prisoner ;  and  thus  he,  who 
had  awed  the  nations  by  his  word,  was  dragged  at  the 
chariot-wheels  of  Napoleon,  introduced  at  the  ceremony  of 
the  coronation  of  the  Emperor,  not  to  crown,  but  to  grace 
the  coronation,  as  a  puppet  at  the  spectacle ;  for  Napoleon 
placed  the  crown  on  his  own  head,  w'hile  the  Pope  stood  by 
to  gild  the  scene,  but  not  to  perform  the  ceremony.  How 
truly  was  the  prediction  fulfilled  that  this  vial  should  be 
poured  out  upon  the  throne  of  the  beast ! 

We  now  turn  to  the  sixth  vial,  under  the  last  dregs  of 
which  we  now  are.  Under  it  the  premonitory  symptoms  of 
the  approach  of  Him  who  is  to  reign  for  ever,  develop  them- 
selves. Under  this  vial  the  river  Euphrates  Avas  to  be  dried. 
I  showed  you.  in  a  previous  lecture,  that  the  Euphrates  Avas 
the  symbol  of  the  Turkish  power:  what  has  been  the  fact? 
From  1820  down  to  the  present  time,  Turkey  has  been 
wasting  —  the  crescent  waning.  The  Janissaries,  its  power- 
ful police,  are  extinct :  the  head  of  the  Empire  is  adopting 
European  customs ;  laws  that  were  peculiar  distinctions  of 
Mohammedanism  are  repealed ;  and,  in  the  language  of 
Chateaubriand,  "Turkey  is  dying  for  Avant  of  Turks." 
And,  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  years  more,  the  last 
streams  in  the  channels  of  the  Euphrates  will  be  exhausted, 
and  Turkey,  the  great  oppressor  of  the  church  in  the  days 
that  are  past,  will  be  no  longer  a  reality  among  the  nations. 
Then  the  drying  up  of  the  river  was  to  make  preparation 
for  the  return  of  the  kings  of  the  east.  The  kings  of  the 
east,  I  showed  you.  are  the  JeAvish  people ;  and  that,  con- 
temporaneous Avith  the  Avasting  of  the  Turkish  poAver,  there 
should  be  the  rise  of  an  interest  in  the  JcAvish  race; 
and  Avhen  the  Turkish  power  is  utterly  exhausted,  the  Jews 
should  be  illuminated  Avith  a  divine  light,  march  in  columns 


ABSTRACT  OF  LECTURES.  215 

to  the  land  of  their  fathers,  and,  in  the  midst  of  Jerusalem, 
praise  with  hosaunas,  Him  whom  their  fathers  crucified. 
And  such  an  interest  is  actually  taken  in  their  destiny  at 
the  present  day :  Sweden  is  agitated  about  the  position  of 
the  Jews  in  that  country :  the  king  of  Prussia  is  in  diffi- 
culty about  the  same  tiling.  That  despised,  persecuted, 
money-loving  race  is  about  to  occupy  a  new  and  more 
prominent  position  in  the  affairs  of  Europe.  In  our  own 
country,  is  it  not  one  of  the  great  topics  of  the  day  ?  I 
pronounce  not  here  whether  it  be  politically  right  or  politi- 
cally wrong ;  but  when  I  read  the  speeches  of  Lord  John 
Kussell  and  Lord  Ashley,  in  the  House  of  Commons,  the 
former  in  support  of  the  measure,  and  the  latter  in  oppo- 
sition to  it,  I  was  struck  by  the  deep  and  solemn  sense  of 
responsibility  that  seemed  to  be  felt  hy  l)Oth  those  statesmen, 
ami  the  impression  rushed  upon  my  mind, — Prime  ministers 
and  members  of  Parliament  may,  as  they  conscientiously 
desire,  pursue  their  own  plans,  and  seek  the  accomplishment 
of  their  own  ends;  but  they  are  but  instruments  in  the 
hands  of  God,  working  out  his  glorious  will  —  his  predicted 
purpose. 

I  noticed,  also,  the  three  unclean  spirits  that  go  out,  under 
this  vial,  to  deceive  the  nations  of  the  earth.  I  showed  that 
the  first  was  Lifidelity :  and,  remember,  I  am  only  now 
stating  results,  not  giving  you  the  data :  I  showed  that  the 
first  is  Infidelity,  consisting  in  the  absence  of  religion ;  and 
next  in  antagonism  to  reliij;ion.  I  showed  that  the  second 
unclean  spirit  from  the  mouth  of  tlie  beast  was  Popery :  I 
need  not  here  recapitulate  the  evidence  of  its  remarkable 
presence  among  us.  Some  fifty  years  ago  there  were  only 
fifteen  or  twenty  lloman  Catholic  chapels  in  England ;  now 
there  arc  about  700.  In  the  course  of  six  years  they  have 
built  60  churches,  several  of  which  are  cathedrals,  all  are 
as  large,  some  larger,  than  the  largest  parish  churches  in  this 
country ;  they  have  between  800  and  900  priests  laboring 
throughout  the  country ;  nay,  more,  there  is  not  a  place  of 
any  importance  in  which  there  is  not  some  Jesuit  laboring 
with  untiring  energy  —  unwearied  zeal  —  and  unequalled 
cunning  for  the  supremacy  of  his  church.  Then  I  showed 
you  that  the  third  unclean  spirit  is  Tractarianism,  as  distin- 
guished from  Popery ;  in  other  words,  Popery  without  a 


216  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

pope ;  all  the  venom  of  the  original  without  its  consistency 
and  fulness  of  development.  I  have  seen  much  of  this 
system  in  recent  instances,  and  it  has  made  me  feel  more 
than  ever  that  the  priestly  power  is  the  main  element  that 
we  have  to  dread.  The  dissenter  says,  whether  truly  or  not 
I  need  not  now  pronounce,  that  the  church  ought  to  be 
totally  separate  from  the  state,  and  to  be  in  no  degree 
within  the  reach  of  Cassar's  touch.  The  churchman  says, 
rightly  or  wrongly  I  do  not  now  determine,  but  most  consist- 
ently, that  the  church  and  state  should  bo  united  to  one 
another,  and  live  in  good  friendship  and  happy  brotherhood ; 
but  the  Puseyite  does  not  adopt  the  sentiments  of  either ; 
he  says  that  the  state  must  obey  the  church;  the  priest 
must  be  the  ruler,  the  prince  must  be  the  subject.  I  say 
the  priestly  power  is  the  element  we  have  to  dread  —  the 
element  Avhich  makes  gigantic  progress,  and  aims  at  umiti- 
gated  supremacy. 

We  came,  last  Sunday  evening,  to  the  opening  of  the 
seventh  vial,  which  is  the  grand  consummation  of  those 
prophecies  that  bud  every  hour  into  performance.  Under 
it,  I  believe,  Christ  comes.  Now,  I  do  believe  that  Christ's 
advent  is  not  post-millennial,  but  pre-millennial.  I  believe 
there  will  not  be  a  Millennium  till  Christ  come  ;  I  believe 
that  when  He  comes  there  will  take  place  two  resurrections, 
the  one  only  of  the  just,  the  other  only  of  the  wicked. 
Need  I  remind  you  of  what  St.  Paul  says,  "If  by  any 
means  I  may  attain  unto  the  resurrection"  (Ix.  rSf  renQSii'^ 
^^fi-om  among  the  dead."  And  our  Lord  speaks  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  just  in  particular  :  and  St.  Paul  speaks 
plainly,  "the  dead  in  Christ  shall  rise  first,  then  we  which 
are  alive  and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  Avith  him 
in  the  air."  My  dear  friends,  when  Christ  comes,  what  a 
startling  spectacle  will  the  world  present !  Every  grave 
that  contains  a  dead  saint  shall  rend,  while  every  grave  that 
contains  the  ashes  of  the  lost  remains  unagitated.  In  every 
churchyard  one  grave  will  open,  and  its  dead,  quickened  by 
an  impulse  from  on  high,  will  rise  and  meet  the  Lord  in  the 
air ;  but  the  grave  that  is  next  to  it  shall  remain  still  un- 
changed as  it  was  before,  and  unmoved  by  what  has  taken 
place  beside  it.  So  in  a  family,  one  person  shall  be  snatched 
away,  it  may  be  at  midnight,  and  rise  to  meet  the  Lord  in 


I 


ABSTRACT    OF    LECTUllES.  217 

his  resurrection-body,  and  another  shall  be  left.  The 
mother  shall  remain,  the  child  shall  rise ;  or  the  son  shall 
remain,  and  the  mother  shall  be  taken  away.  And  then, 
■when  all  Christ's  dead  saints  are  quickened  and  risen,  and 
all  Christ's  living  saints  have  joined  them,  this  globe,  as  I 
explained  to  you  from  1  Pet.  3 :  10,  this  earth,  which  is 
stored  with  fire  —  for  it  is  very  remarkable  that  the  last 
geological  discoveries  prove  the  earth  upon  which  we  tread 
to  be  a  mere  crust,  the  interior  of  which  is  full  of  liquid 
fire,  and  for  every  one  hundred  feet  that  you  go  down  into 
the  earth  the  thermometer  rises  one  degree — will  split  into 
a  thousand  crevices,  from  which  those  fiames  will  burst,  and 
the  atmosphere  which  surrounds  it,  and  is  composed  of  gases 
that  are  igneous,  will  ignite  and  wrap  it  in  a  shroud  of 
flame,  and  the  earth,  thus  purified,  will  be  the  holy  and  the 
happy  spot  on  which  the  saints  shall  dwell  and  praise  and 
magnify  the  Lord. 

The  seventh  vial,  we  are  told,  will  be  poured  out  upon 
the  air :  I  showed  you,  last  Sunday  evening,  the  proofs 
and  evidences  of  its  action ;  and  I  also  stated  that,  while 
there  was  its  moral  meaning  in  this,  there  was  also  a  literal 
fulfilment  of  it.  And  what  do  we  see  taking  place  all 
around  us  ?  Look  at  the  potato  blight  which  took  place  two 
years  ago ;  after  all  that  has  been  written  on  the  subject,  it 
has  not  yet  been  explained :  look  at  the  rapid  progress  of 
the  influenza;  all  admit  that  it  is  not  contagious,  yet  it 
breaks  out  in  one  family  and  goes  on  to  another  family ;  and 
see,  the  cholera  next  threatens  us  with  its  ravages;  it  is 
proved  that  it  is  not  contagious,  yet  it  breaks  out  in  city 
after  cit}*,  and  country  after  country  —  sanitary  improve- 
ments, however  right  and  however  necessar}'-,  cannot  abso- 
lutely prevent  it.  "What  is  the  explanation  of  all  this? 
Look  at  our  commercial  difliculties  —  our  perplexed  mer- 
chants—  our  political  dislocations  and  Chartist  excitements 
—  all  admit  that  they  ai*c  puzzled  for  the  explanation  of 
these  things.  I  can  explain  it  to  you.  The  angel  is  pour- 
ing out  liis  vial  upon  the  air  —  the  sprinklings  arc  on  the 
pen,  the  plough,  the  shuttle,  on  continent,  and  island,  and 
sea.  Our  commerce,  and  our  agriculture,  and  our  manu- 
factures, and  all  in  which  we  glory,  feel  its  blighting 
dews,  and  give  token  of  feeling  it  more  severely,  and  that 
19 


218  LECTURES   OF   DR.    CUMMINa. 


speedily.  "Blessed  is  he  that  watchetli  and  keepeth  his 
garments,"  for  "behold,  I  come  as  a  thief."* 

If  time  Avould  only  have  allowed  me,  I  Avould  have  de- 
duced several  lessons  from  all  that  I  have  now  been  stating, 
which  I  think  of  great  practical  value ;  but  I  have  really 
drawn  so  much  upon  your  patience  already,  that  I  must 
close,  and  I  only  regret  that  the  time  for  my  continuing 
these  lectures  has  passed  away  :  the  historical  illustrations 
I  Avill  not  pursue  further,  but  the  beautiful  and  spirited 
passages  contained  in  the  rest  of  the  Apocalypse  I  shall 
explain  to  my  own  peojjle,  in  my  own  church,  on  successive 
Sunday  evenings.f 

We  live  in  years  into  each  of  which  is  crowded  the  work 
of  centuries.  A  day  brings  forth  now  more  than  a  century 
brought  forth  in  former  times.  Time  rushes  more  rapidly 
as  it  nears  its  final  fall.  The  future  appi'oaches  us  like  a 
rising  tide,  and  destinies  solemn  as  the  soul,  heaven,  and 
hell,  stretch  out  before  us.  Are  we  not  called  on  to  ascer- 
tain clearly  our  relative  position  ?  What  matters  it  that  a 
Millennium  comes,  if  we  shall  have  no  share  in  it?  What 
avails  it  that  its  music  shall  be  so  sweet,  its  air  so  holy,  and 
its  people  so  happy,  and  its  translucency  with  glory  so 
bright,  if  we  shall  have  no  part  in  it  ?  There  remaineth 
indeed  a  rest ;  but  it  is  for  the  people  of  God.  Is  this  our 
class  ?  Do  we  belong  to  that  consecrated  family  ?  Are  we 
Christ's  ?  This  is  the  question  of  questions.  Our  w^hole 
interest  is  compressed  in  this.  0,  leave  it  not  unsolved 
and  unsettled.  "  Believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  thou 
shalt  be  saved."  "  Look  unto  me,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth, 
and  be  yc  saved."  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh 
aAvay  the  sin  of  the  world."  "Lord  Jesus,  to  Avhom  can 
we  go  but  unto  thee  ?  thou  hast  the  words  of  everlasting- 
life." 

Let  me  ask,  therefore,  when  Christ  shall  come  upon  the 
lightning's  Aving  or  upon  the  eddying  air,  at  midnight  or  at 

*  Tho  earthquake  of  the  seventh  vial  began  in  February,  1818,  at  Paris, 
the  centre  of  Europe.  Watch  and  wait;  we  are  now  plainly  under  the 
seventh  vial. 

f  The  second  series  of  Apocalyptic  Sketches  has  been  published.  These 
contain  the  Apocalyptic  sketches  of  millennial  blessedness,  and  I  trust  will 
prove  as  interesting  to  tho  people  of  God  as  those,  which  were  so  much 
appreciated,  and  more  appreciated  than  they  deserved,  in  Exeter  Hall. 


THE    MOSLEM    AND    HIS    END.  219 

midday,  if  you  feel  that  you  ai*e  prepared  to  meet  him  ?  to 
welcome  him?  to  reign  with  him?  He  may  come  next 
year,  or  in  five,  or  in  ten,  or  in  twenty  years  :  I  cannot 
say.  It  will  be  at  an  hour  when  ye  think  not.  Near,  how- 
ever, his  advent  is  —  all  chronology,  and  prophecy,  and 
history  prove  it  —  it  is  time,  therefore,  that  we  should  set 
our  house  in  order,  and  have  our  loins  girt,  and  our  lamps 
burning.  Were  I  told  that  the  end  of  this  dispensation 
would  come  to-morrow,  I  would  not  say  to  the  tradesman, 
leave  your  shop  —  or  to  the  statesman,  leave  your  cabinet 
—  or  to  the  lawyer,  abandon  your  desk — or  to  the  soldier, 
your  sword ;  but  I  would  say  to  each  and  all,  sit  loose  to 
all  that  is  worldly ;  mingle  not  your  affections  with  its 
transitory  elements ;  let  your  iiand  be  here,  but  let  your 
heart  be  in  heaven ;  let  your  treasure  be  beyond  the  skies, 
and  your  hope  in  glory.  Like  the  eagle,  touch  the  earth 
only  to  eat  and  sleep,  and  rise  again  as  quickly  as  possible, 
and  soar  perpetually  towards  brighter  realms,  rivetting  your 
eye  on  a  yet  more  glorious  Sun.  There  is  no  obstruction 
to  the  upward  flight  of  him  who  has  Christ,  the  password 
of  the  universe.  All  things  shall  aid  you.  for  God  is  with 
you  ;  and  when  the  gray  wing  of  time  siiall  have  winnowed 
away  things  now  seen,  your  eye,  purified  and  strengthened, 
will  gaze  upon  a  universe  clear  with  light  and  pure  with 
Deity,  no  more  to  wane  in  age  or  wo  —  the  Sabbath  of  the 
world's  long  week  —  the  reign  of  the  church's  long-absent 
Lord. 


THE   MOSLEM   AND   HIS  END. 

In  introducing  to  the  reader  the  Moslem  and  his  fivte,  I 
do  not  pretend  to  prophesy,  but  simjily  to  set  forth  what 
seems,  on  grounds  of  the  very  highest  probability,  to  be  the 
meaning  of  prophecy  inspired  by  God,  and  written  for  our 
instruction.  I  do  not  attempt  to  foretell :  all  I  presume  is, 
to  foi'th  tell  what  is  already  predicted  in  the  sacred  volume. 
I  am  an  humble  interpreter  of  what  God  has  written,  not  a 


220  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

prophet  of  Avhat  God  -will  do.  I  speak  to  reasonable  men; 
I  ask  attention,  not  submission. 

The  application  of  Scripture  to  the  events  of  the  day  de- 
mands the  utmost  carefulness.  We  must  take  care  to  avoid 
that  presumption  which  sees  the  fulfilment  of  prophecy  in 
things  in  no  just  respect  the  echoes  of  ancient  predictions ; 
and  equally  also  that  incredulity,  or  rather  skepticism,  ■which 
regards  the  \vord  of  God  as  in  no  degree  applical)le  to  the 
afiairs  of  men.  I  believe  history  is  a  continuous  fulfilment 
of  prophecy ;  its  facts,  the  marks  of  Providence  translating 
the  written  into  the  actual  —  ancient  texts  into  modern  an- 
nals. God  inspired  the  prophet.  He  rules  in  the  afiairs  of 
men,  when  all  past  utterances  shall  be  seen  embodied  in 
present  facts,  and  all  history  point  backward  to  its  outline, 
laid  down  in  Scripture  long  before  its  materials  were  found. 
Gibbon  the  skeptic,  and  Hume  the  atheist,  and  Alison  the 
Christian,  and  Macaulay,  and  innumerable  others,  will  ap- 
pear, reluctantly  or  the  reverse,  the  most  emphatic  witnesses 
to  God  in  his  word  and  in  his  Avorld.  Every  day  this  result 
approaches  us ;  more  and  more  does  Scripture  shine  forth 
in  deepening  lustre  and  beauty. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  important  to  remark,  that,  on  the 
great  truths  of  Christianity,  all  true  Christians  of  every 
persuasion  are  as  one ;  on  the  interpretation  of  prophecy,  it 
is  fair  to  state,  they  conscientiously  differ.  Yet  in  this  field 
there  is  a  deepening  agreement  among  most.  Differ  from 
me  or  any  other  Christian  as  such,  on  that  which  is  vital 
and  essential,  and  you  so  far  denude  yourselves  of  the  claims 
of  Christians ;  but  should  the  reader  differ  from  me  on  the 
interpretation  of  prophecy,  and  what  appears  to  me  most 
probable,  I  hope,  in  the  spirit  of  brotherly  love  and  of 
Christian  charity,  we  shall  forgive  our  differences  in  things 
confessedly  difficult,  and  sometimes  obscure,  because  of  our 
harmony  in  magnificent  and  glorious  things,  which  are  so 
plain  that  a  wayfaring  man  may  not  err  therein. 

The  subject  I  propose  to  examine  here  is  Turkey  and 
Mohammedanism,  or  the  Moslem  and  his  end.  The  subject 
is,  in  the  present  crisis  of  Europe,  fraught  with  the  intens- 
est  interest.  It  absorbs  many  thoughts :  all  eyes  are 
directed  to  the  sun-rising.  Every  newspaper  reflects  on  the 
West  the  startlin'jc  li'dits  that  are  breakino;  forth  in  the  East. 


THE    MOSLEM    AND    UIS    END.  221 

Every  day's  post  is  anxiously  expected.  Tiie  Crescent  is 
occupyin<^  the  thoughts,  the  hopes,  the  sympathies,  and  even 
provoking  tiie  sorro\vs  and  the  griefs  of  the  best,  the  most 
civilized  and  Christian  of  the  human  family.  The  Koran 
has  played  so  startling  a  part  in  the  great  drama  of  the  past, 
that  we  naturally  and  anxiously  inquire  what  place  it  is  to 
occupy  in  the  looming  prospects  of  the  future.  I  am  here, 
not  to  guess  or  to  calculate  politically,  but  to  interpret,  as 
I  may  be  able,  inspired  prophecy. 

The  two  great  prophecies,  to  which  I  would  direct  atten- 
tion, arc  contained  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  and  in  the  Book 
of  Revelation.  These  writings  of  Daniel  and  St.  John  are 
as  descriptive  of  things  future  as  Genesis  and  Exodus  of 
things  past.  They  arc  given  to  be  read,  and  why  not  to  be 
understood  ? 

The  first  one  is  in  the  eighth  chapter  of  the  Book  of 
Daniel,  where  we  read  the  interpretation  of  what  the  seer 
saw.  It  says :  "The  ram  which  thou  sawest  having  two 
horns  are  the  kings  of  INIedia  and  Persia :  and  the  rough 
goat  is  the  king  of  Grecia :  and  the  great  horn  that  is 
between  his  eyes  is  the  first  king.  Now,  that  being  broken, 
wdiercas  four  stood  up  for  it,  four  kingdoms  shall  stand  up 
out  of  the  nation,  but  not  in  his  power.  And  in  the  latter 
time  of  their  kingdom,  when  the  transgressors  are  come  to 
the  full,  a  king  of  fierce  countenance,  and  understanding 
dark  sentences,  sliall  stand  up.  And  his  power  shall  be 
mighty,  but  not  by  his  own  power :  and  he  shall  destroy 
wonderfully,  and  shall  prosper,  and  practise,  and  shall  de- 
stroy the  mighty  and  the  holy  people.  And  through  his 
policy  also  he  shall  cause  craft  to  prosper  in  his  hand ;  and 
he  shall  magnify  himself  in  his  heart,  and  by  peace  shall 
destroy  many :  he  shall  also  stand  up  against  the  Prince  of 
])rinoc3;  but  he  shall  be  broken  without  hand."  (Dan.  8  : 
20—25.) 

I  do  not  waste  your  time  by  establishing  and  identifying 
every  symbol  in  the  passage.  I  assume  that  the  identifi- 
cation of  Bishop  Newton,  of  Elliot  and  Mede,  and  many 
other  distinguished  interpreters  of  prophecy,  is  correct. 
Indeed,  I  have  no  doubt  of  it.  First,  the  rara  is  represented 
and  proved  by  them  to  be  the  Persian  power.  The  two 
horns  are  two  dynastic  branches,  or  the  Median  and  Persian 
19* 


222  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

kingdoms,  shooting  from  one  head,  or  grafted  into  the  one 
great  national  power.  For  fifty  or  sixty  years,  —  that  is, 
from  the  accession  of  Cyrus  to  the  Greek  expedition  under 
Xerxes,  —  no  national  power,  Avestward,  northward,  or 
southward,  was  able  to  stand  before  it.  This  is  the  literal 
history  of  the  progress,  the  triumphs,  and  successes  of  the 
Mcdo-Persian  kingdom.  The  goat,  that  appears  in  the  fifth 
verse,  as  INIacedonian  coins  shall  testify,  Avas  the  Macedonian 
power.  Tlie  notable  horn  —  the  remarkable  or  illustrious 
horn  between  the  eyes  —  has  been  identified  successfully  as 
Alexander  the  Great,  Avho,  in  tiie  language  of  verses  G  and 
7,  rushed  against  the  ram,  broke  his  horns,  or  destroyed  the 
Persian  kingdom,  added  the  empire  to  his  own,  and  so 
swelled  his  imperial  supremacy  to  the  highest  possible  pitch, 
and  became  politically  "notable." 

This  great  or  notable  horn  broke  down  in  its  meridian  : 
that  is,  Alexander  the  Great  died  in  his  prime,  and  in  the 
midst  of  his  victories,  a  melancholy  proof  that  victory  is 
vanity.  Tlie  four  horns  that  succeeded,  on  the  division  of 
the  empire,  were  the  four  Macedonian  kingdoms,  formed 
under  the  four  generals  of  Alexander,  after  the  battle  of 
Issus.  These  are  the  outlines  of  the  passage  I  have  read. 
Historical  facts  thus  fill  up  prophetic  outlines. 

The  subject  that  specially  concerns  me  in  this  investiga- 
tion, is  the  rise,  locality,  and  date  of  Avhat  is  here  called 
"  the  little  horn,"  described  by  the  prophet  in  the  most 
graphic  terms.  It  was,  I  conceive,  the  representative  of  the 
Turkish  and  Mohammedan  power.  First,  it  springs  out  of 
one  of  the  four  Macedonian  kingdoms  at  its  close.  Second- 
ly, the  character  of  its  chief  is,  "a  king  of  fierce  counte- 
nance, disclosing  dark  sentences,"  or  a  military  prophet, 
propagating  strange  or  portentous  revelations.  Thirdly,  his 
success,  that  he  should  Avax  exceeding  great  towards  the 
south,  the  east,  and  the  glory,  or  Jerusalem,  used  here  in 
all  likelihood  to  represent  the  professing  Christian  church. 
Fourthly,  the  effects  of  his  progress  shall  be,  that  he  shall 
cast  truth  to  the  ground,  cause  craft  to  prosper,  take  aAvay 
the  daily  sacrifice,  and  cast  down  the  place  of  Jehovah's 
sanctuary,  that  is,  depress  Christendom.  Fifthly,  he  shall 
stamp  upon  the  mighty  ones,  or  secular  powers ;  and  the 
reason  of  his  judging  them  or  visiting  them  in  his  wrath  is 


THE   MOSLEM    AND    HIS   END.  223 


their  apostasy,  or  the  standing  up  against  ' '  the  Prince  of 
princes,"  that  is,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ;  and  at  the  end  of 
2300  years,  according  to  the  prophecy  of  this  book,  the 
sanctuary  shall  begin  to  be  cleansed,  or,  in  the  language  of 
the  sixteenth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  Euphratean 
flood,  as  I  shall  show  you  by  and  by,  will  begin  to  retire, 
or  to  evaporate  and  cease. 

Having  thus  bricHy  given  the  outline  of  the  prophetical 
record,  let  me  now  identify  its  features  by  stating  tho 
historical  fulfilment  of  it,  as  attested  in  tlie  annals  of  Asia 
and  Europe.  The  Turkish  power  arose  cast  of  the  Oxus, 
in  Chorassan,  a  territory  of  the  Cyro-Macedonian  horn  or 
kingdom.  At  that  time  a  Turkman  tribe  revolted  against 
the  Sultan  of  Ghizni,  elected  Toghrul  Beg  for  its  chief, 
and  asserted  for  itself  the  dignity,  the  position,  and  the 
prestige  of  a  ruling  power,  though  comparatively  then  "a 
little  one."  Toghrul  was  invited  by  the  caliph  at  Bagdad 
to  help  him  against  Persia.  The  Turkman  chief  obeyed 
the  request,  and,  in  the  language  of  the  prophecy,  advanced 
southward.  Toghrul  was  next  raised  to  the  dignity  of  chief 
general  of  Islam ;  afterwards  he  married  the  caliph's 
daughter,  and  so  became  the  powerful  and  fanatical  mission- 
ary of  Mohammedanism  through  eastern  lands,  and  Greek 
Christendom  ;  and  not  only  Judea,  but  Asiatic  Christendom, 
was  gradually  subdued  by  him. 

Gibbon,  the  best  commentator  upon  past  prophecy,  as  a 
daily  newspaper  is  the  best  commentator  upon  existing  and 
fulfilling  prophecy,  thus  describes  the  victorious  progress  of 
this  Turkman  chief,  in  words  almost  the  very  echoes  of 
Daniel's  prophecy:  '-From  the  Chinese  frontier  in  the 
cast,  he  stretched  his  immediate  jurisdiction  to  the  west  and 
south,  as  far  as  the  neighborhood  of  Constantinople,  the  holy 
city  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  s[)icy  groves  of  Arabia  Felix;  " 
or,  in  the  language  of  prophecy,  of  which  Gibbon  was  tho 
unconscious  expounder,  he  "waxed  exceeding  great  toward 
the  cast,  and  toward  the  south,  and  toward  the  glory." 
Daniel  says,  he  waxed  great  to  the  host  of  heaven,  cast  tho 
stars  down  and  stamped  upon  them ;  and  the  daily  sacrifice 
was  taken  away,  and  the  place  of  the  Lord's  sanctuary  was 
cast  down.  Gibbon  thus  describes  the  Turkish  progress : 
"By  the  choice  of  the  Sultan,  Nice  was  preferred  for  his 


224  LECTURES   OF  DR.    GUMMING. 

palace,  and  the  divinity  of  Christ  was  denied  and  derided  in 
the  same  temple  in  v.hich  it  had  been  first  pronounced  by 
the  first  synod  of  Christendom.  On  the  hard  conditions  of 
tribute  and  servitude,  the  Greek  Christians  might  enjoy  the 
exercise  of  their  religion ;  but  their  most  holy  temples  were 
profaned,  and  their  priests  and  bishops  were  insulted."  The 
idolatry  and  apostasy  of  its  professors  having  come  to  the 
full,  in  the  language  of  Daniel,  they  were  thus  punished  by 
the  scourge,  sent  forth  in  the  providence  of  God  to  chasten 
the  apostate  and  the  guilty  nations  of  Christendom.  The 
"  dark  sentences  "  of  Daniel  are  thus  translated  by  Gibbon, 
though  unconscious  that  Daniel  had  so  written :  "  The 
Koran  is  full  of  endless,  incolierent  rhapsody  and  fable, 
sometimes  crawling  in  the  dust,  at  other  times  lost  in  the 
clouds."  The  fierce  countenance  of  this  predicted  king, 
which  is  the  picture  of  Daniel,  is  described  by  Gibbon,  when 
he  uses  the  expression  in  his  magnificent  History,  "  He  was 
fierce  as  a  Turk."  "  The  Turks  breathed  still  all  the  fierce- 
ness of  the  desert."  The  fierceness  of  the  Turk  became  at 
last  a  proverbial  expression  throughout  Christendom.  The 
angel  in  the  prophecy  asks  how  long  this  absolute  eastern 
domination  shall  last,  and  the  answer  given,  as  I  have  stat- 
ed, is  2300  years.  The  first  question  is.  What  is  the  date 
of  the  commencement  of  that  epoch  ?  It  cannot  be  previous 
to  the  year  536  before  Christ,  because  then  the  two-horned 
kingdom  was  in  existence.  It  cannot  be  after  the  defeat  of 
Xerxes  in  the  year  480  before  Christ,  for  then  the  chief 
glory  of  the  Persian  empire  was  gone;  but  in  480  before 
Christ,  immediately  previous  to  the  last  catastrophe  of  the 
Persian  empire,  Xerxes  made  his  triumphant  march  into 
Macedon  and  Greece,  and  thus  the  tide  of  its  glory  was  at 
its  full,  just  before  its  ebbing.  Dating,  therefore,  the  2300 
years  at  that  period,  the  Crescent,  if  the  date  be  correct, 
should  begin  to  wane  in  A.  D.  1820 ;  the  Euphratean  flood 
should  then  begin  to  evaporate,  and  Turkey  not  he  extin- 
guished at  a  blow,  but  decline  and  die  of  gradual  decrepi- 
tude, exhaustion,  and  decay.  By  and  by  I  will  show  you 
how  literally  this  has  been  fulfilled. 

Having  seen  the  picture  of  Daniel,  let  me  show  you,  for 
the  sake  of  giving  the  full  history,  another  portrait,  by  an 
equally  inspired  penman,  namely,  St.  John,  in  the  ninth 


THE    MOSLEM    AND    HIS    END.  225 

chapter  of  the  Apocalypse.  He  says :  "  The  fifth  angel 
sounded,  and  I  saw  a  star  fall  from  heaven  unto  the  earth  : 
and  to  him  Avas  given  the  key  of  the  bottomless  pit.  And 
he  opened  the  bottomless  pit ;  and  there  ai'ose  a  smoke  out 
of  the  pit,  as  the  smoke  of  a  great  furnace ;  and  the  sun  and 
the  air  was  darkened  by  reason  of  the  smoke  of  the  pit. 
And  there  came  out  of  the  smoke  locusts  upon  the  earth : 
and  unto  them  was  given  power,  as  the  scorpions  of  the 
earth  have  power.  And  it  was  commanded  them  that  they 
should  not  hurt  the  grass  of  the  earth,  neither  any  green 
tiling,  neither  any  tree ;  but  only  those  men  which  have  not 
the  seal  of  God  in  ihcir  foreheads.  And  to  them  it  was 
given  that  they  should  not  kill  them,  but  that  they  should 
be  tormented  five  months:  and  their  torment  was  as  the  tor- 
ment of  a  scorpion  when  he  striketh  a  man.  And  in  those 
days  shall  men  seek  death,  and  shall  not  find  it ;  and  shall 
desire  to  die,  and  death  shall  flee  from  them.  And  the 
shapes  of  the  locusts  were  like  unto  horses  prepared  unto 
battle ;  and  on  their  heads  were  as  it  were  crowns  like  gold, 
and  their  faces  were  as  the  faces  of  men.  And  they  had 
hair  as  the  hair  of  women,  and  their  teeth  were  as  the  teeth 
of  lions.  And  they  had  breastplates,  as  it  were  breastplates 
of  iron ;  and  the  sound  of  their  wings  was  as  the  sound  of 
chariots  of  many  horses  running  to  battle.  And  they  had 
tails  like  unto  scorpions,  and  there  were  stings  in  their  tails: 
and  their  power  was  to  hurt  men  five  months.  And  they 
had  a  king  over  them,  which  is  the  angel  of  the  bottomless 
pit,  whose  name  in  the  Hebrew  tongue  is  Abaddon."  That 
is  one  class.  Then,  secondly,  he  describes  another:  "And 
the  sixth  angel  sounded,  and  I  heard  a  voice  from  the  four 
horns  of  the  golden  altar  which  is  before  God,  saying  to  the 
sixth  angel  Avhich  had  the  trumpet.  Loose  the  four  angels 
which  are  bound  in  the  great  river  Euphrates.  And  the 
four  angels  were  loosed,  which  were  prepared  for  an  hour, 
and  a  day,  and  a  month,  and  a  year,  for  to  slay  the  third 
part  of  men.  And  the  number  of  the  army  of  the  horsemen 
were  two  hundred  thousand  thousand  :  and  I  heard  the  num- 
ber of  them.  And  thus  I  saw  the  horses  in  the  vision,  and 
them  that  sat  on  them,  having  breastplates  of  fire,  and  of 
jacinth,  and  brimstone :  and  the  heads  of  the  horses  were  as 
the  heads  of  lions ;  and  out  of  their  mouths  issued  fire  and 


226  LECTURES    OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

smoke  and  brimstone.  By  these  three  was  the  third  part  of 
men  killed,  by  the  fire,  and  by  the  smoke,  and  by  the  brim- 
stone, which  issued  out  of  their  mouths.  For  their  power  is 
in  their  mouth,  and  in  their  tails :  for  their  tails  were  like 
unto  serpents,  and  had  heads,  and  with  them  they  do  hurt." 
—Rev.  9 :  1—19. 

Now,  first  of  all,  in  the  chapter  I  have  read,  we  have  the 
originator,  or  chief  inventor  or  letter-loose  of  that  smoke 
which  darkened,  soon  after  that  date,  the  whole  eastern  part 
of  Christendom.  Secondly,  we  have  th(!  Saracen  propagand- 
ists of  Mohammedan  delusion,  who  carried  their  propagandism 
up  to  a  point  limited  in  this  chapter  by  the  express  declara- 
tion of  the  inspired  penman,  and  confirmed,  as  we  shall  see, 
by  facts.  We  have  next  the  Turks,  who  took  up  the  prop- 
agandism of  i\Iohammedanism  at  Bagdad  on  the  Euphi-ates, 
Avhere  the  Saracens  paused,  and  carried  it  onwards  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  Asia  and  of  Europe,  till  the  victo- 
rious Crescent  stood  over  the  ruins  of  the  mistress  of  the 
East,  the  noble  and  beautiful  Constantinople. 

Let  us,  then,  see  how  exactly  all  this  has  been  fulfilled  in 
history.  First,  we  have  the  great  chief  or  originator  of  the 
system  likened  unto  a  fallen  star.  Both  Bishop  Newton 
and  jMr.  Elliot,  and  the  best  commentators  on  prophecy, 
admit  that  this  refers  to  Mohammed  :  and  the  proof  of  it  is  not 
a  conjecture,  but  the  perfect  parallelism  between  it  and  the 
man's  biography  and  the  historic  records  of  modern  Europe. 
A  JJrmamental  star  denotes  a  ruler,  secular  or  ecclesiastical ; 
a  fallen  firmamental  star,  a  ruler  degraded,  degenerate,  or 
deposed.  Mohammed  was  of  the  royal  house  of  Koreish,  the 
governors  of  Caaba,  who  had  its  key  as  representative  of 
paganism.  At  the  death  of  his  father,  Mohammed  was  left  a 
destitute  orphan ;  he  fell  from  dignity  to  the  earth ;  he  had 
royal  lineage,  ancient  but  now  lost  greatness,  and  was  re- 
duced in  the  providence  of  God  to  the  lowest  level.  He  was 
a  star  once  resplendent  in  the  firmament ;  in  the  meridian 
of  rule  he  fell,  and  sunk,  in  the  language  of  Gibbon,  to  be- 
come the  humble  servant  of  a  humble  and  a  poor  wido.w. 
In  other  words,  he  lost  the  key  of  the  Caaba,  and  the  dig- 
nities of  its  tenure,  originally  intrusted  to  his  family  in 
former  days,  and  he  became  the  menial  servant  of  a  poor 
widow,  for  whom  he  transacted  business  in  the  markets  and 


•  THE   MOSLEM   AND   UIS  END.  227 

in  the  chief  places  of  merchandise  in  Damascus.  Three 
miles  from  Mecca  there  was  a  cave  (Heira),  into  which  Mo- 
hammed, as  the  menial  servant  of  this  widow,  was  in  the  habit 
of  retiring;  and,  in  the  language  of  Gibbon,  in  that  cave 
"  he  held  communion  with  the  spirit  of  fraud  and  fanaticism," 
and  from  the  pit,  of  which  this  cave  was  the  meet  type,  he 
ultimately  emerged,  professing  to  be  the  great  missionary  of 
God,  the  chief  recipient  and  proclaimer  of  his  will  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  Asia  and  of  Eastern  Europe. 
The  chief  persons  in  Mecca,  the  moment  that  he  publicly 
assumed  the  dignity  of  an  apostle,  denounced  him  as  a  pre- 
tender, and  he  was  expelled  from  the  city;  and  that  expul- 
sion of  Mohammed  from  the  city  is  the  date  of  Mohammedan 
chronology,  or  the  period  called  the  Hegira,  from  which 
they  date  their  years,  as  we  do  from  the  Christian  era,  or 
birth  of  our  Redeemer. 

"  After  an  exile  of  seven  years,"  says  Gibbon,  "the  fu- 
gitive was  enthroned,  the  prince  and  prophet  of  his  native 
country ;  tiie  injustice  of  Mecca  transformed  the  citizen  of 
Heira  into  the  prince,  the  preacher,  and  the  leader  of  the 
armies  of  his  country." 

In  the  passage  I  have  read,  it  is  said  a  key  was  given  him. 
The  accuracy  of  Apocalyptic  symbols  is  most  remarkable. 
In  the  Koran  it  is  said,  Slohammed  received  the  key  of  God. 
The  Koran  says,  "With  the  key,  did  not  God  give  him  the 
title  and  power  of  a  porter  to  open  the  gates  of  a  paradise?  " 
And  a  form  of  renunciation  of  a  ^Mohammedan  in  the  Greek 
church  is  still  preserved,  in  which  these  words  occur:  "I 
anathematize  the  teaching  of  Mohammed,  who,  they  say,  has 
the  key  of  paradise."  And  on  tiie  central  stone  of  the  arch 
of  the  court  of  justice  of  the  Alhambra  there  is  at  this  mo- 
ment in  alto-relievo  a  large  key,  as  the  great  symbol  of  the 
Muhainmedau  jurisdiction  ;  so  much  so  that  the  key  spoken  of 
in  this  chapter  as  given  to  the  fallen  ruler,  is  to  a  Mahomme- 
dan  very  much  what  the  cross  is  to  a  Christian.  And  thus 
INIohammed,  having  lost  the  key  of  the  pagan  Caaba,  which 
his  forefathei-s  had,  —  that  is,  having  lost  princely  authority 
and  jurisdiction  there,  —  emerged  from  the  abyss,  having 
held  communion,  as  Gibbon  says,  with  the  spirit  of  fraud 
and  fanaticism,  imbued  with  a  spirit  of  fiery  propagandisra, 
and  let  loose  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  Asia  that  smoke 


228  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

which  darkens  mighty  masses  of  the  Eastern  nations  unto 
this  (lay. 

Having  seen  the  first  originator,  let  me  look  at  the  first 
propagandist  missionaries  of  that  smoke  which  he  let  loose 
from  the  abyss.  The  Saracens  Avere  the  first,  the  Turks 
were  the  next.  I  may  just  remark,  that  the  former  call 
themselves  Saracens.  The  Arabs  profess  to  be  the  descend- 
ants of  Sara ;  hence  they  call  themselves  Saracens,  because 
they  are  ashamed  to  admit  that  they  are  Ishmaelites,  or  the 
descendants  of  Hagar.  They  ought  properly  to  be  called 
Hagarenes,  as  the  descendants  of  Hagar  ;  but,  professing  to 
be  the  descendants  of  Sara,  the  princess,  they  call  them- 
selves, as  a  term  of  dignity  and  honor,  Saracens.  The  first 
propagandists  of  this  delusion  were  the  Saracens ;  and  they 
and  their  progress  are  depicted  in  symbolic  language,  ac- 
cording to  prophetic  usage,  which  I  think  can  be  identified 
with  them  and  their  history.  The  locusts,  a  very  composite 
and  clearly  symbolic  creature,  described  in  verses  3,  7,  and 
10  of  the  ninth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse,  are  the  repre- 
sentatives of  these  missionaries. 

Let  us  see  the  force  of  this  by  examining  what  the  sym- 
bol denotes.  A  fig-tree  is  a  symbol  of  Judea ;  a  crocodile, 
of  Egypt;  a  willow,  of  Babylon;  a  wild  ass,  of  Ishmael; 
and  a  ship,  of  Tyre.  But  what  is  the  locust  a  symbol  of? 
It  is  a  composite  one,  and  must  denote  a  being  composite, 
and  not  a  natural,  literal,  living  animal.  It  must  denote 
some  great  moral  feature  embodied  in  those  whom  it  repre- 
sents. Now  the  locust,  first,  appears  in  swarms,  an  idea 
almost  inseparably  connected  with  it.  Secondly,  its  horse- 
like  aspect  denotes  that  the  invading  swarms  should  in  some 
shape  be  associated  with,  or  mainly  consist  of,  cavalry. 
Thirdly,  the  lion-likeness  denotes  resistless  ferocity.  And, 
lastly,  the  scorpion-sting  expresses  the  torment  they  should 
inflict  and  leave  behind  them.  The  birth-place  of  these  lo- 
cust propagandists  must  be  the  East ;  we  read  in  Exodus, 
'■  the  cast-wind  brought  locusts"  into  Egypt.  Yolney  says, 
"  The  locusts  come  from  the  deserts  of  Arabia;"  and  Arbe, 
the  Hebrew  for  an  Arab,  is  almost  the  same  as  arba,  the 
Hebrew  for  a  locust.  Hence,  as  in  Judges  6  :  5,  "  they 
come  as  arba,  or  locusts."  The  scorpion,  in  the  next  place, 
is  always  traced  in  Scripture  to  Arabia.     Moses  says,  "  the 


THE   MOSLEM    AND   HIS  END.  229 

wilderness,  where  fiery  serpents  and  scorpions  are."  The 
hoi'sc,  I  need  not  say,  is  popularly  au  Arab  symbol.  Arabia 
is  his  home.  Wc  read  of  the  Arab  steed,  as  the  model  of  a 
horse.  The  whole  zooloijjy  of  the  symbol  is  strictly  Arab. 
15ut  superadded  to  the  symbol  is  this  remarkable  fact,  that 
tliey  had  tlie  faces  of  men,  the  long  liair  of  women,  crowns 
on  their  heads,  and  breastplates  of  iron ;  or,  translated  into 
literal  language,  the  courage  of  men,  the  effeminacy  of  wo- 
men, invulnerability,  and  triumph  in  battle.  These  were 
not,  I  observe,  the  Goths,  because  the  Goths  had  not  the 
faces  of  men ;  they  shaved  off  tlie  moustache,  and  were 
charged  by  Eastern  nations  with  having  effeminate  faces. 
They  were  not,  in  the  next  place,  the  Greeks  and  Romans ; 
for  long  hair,  another  part  of  the  symbol,  was  an  abomination 
to  them.  Pliny  specifies  the  Arabs  as  wearing  the  mous- 
tache on  the  upper  lip,  as  having  the  long  hair  like  women, 
and  having  turbans  like  crowns :  and  in  the  Antar,  a  cele- 
brated Arabic  poem,  it  is  said  God  has  bestowed  upon  Arabs 
four  heavenly  gifts  : 

"  Turbans  for  diadems,  tents  for  walls, 
Swords  for  intrcnchincnts,  and  poems  for  laws." 

The  Koran  specifics  the  breastplate  of  the  Arab  as  the 
gift  of  God.  The  locust  is  the  national  emblem  of  the 
Ishmaelite,  or  Arab  ;  and  it  is  related  by  Turkish  writers, 
that  a  swarm  of  locusts  alighted  on  ^lohammed's  head,  and  on 
each  of  their  "wings  was  written,  "We  arc  the  army  of 
God."  We  thus  identify  completely  the  symbol  with  the 
Saracens,  or  the  Arab  IMohammedans. 

Now,  soon  after  the  rise  of  the  Mohammedan  smoke  from 
the  pit,  we  read  that  "the  Saracens  emltraced  the  new*  and 
startling  imposture,  and,  imbued  intensely  with  its  fanati- 
cism, they  rushed  in  overwhelming  crowds  into  the  eastern 
parts  of  Christendom."'  Hallam  says,  "The  religion  of 
Mohammed  is  essentially  military.  The  people  of  Arabia 
found  in  the  law  of  their  prophet,  not  a  license,  but  a  com- 
mand, to  desolate  the  world."  Like  locusts,  they  descended 
in  swarms  into  Europe,  with  all  the  ferocity  of  lions,  Avith 
all  the  fleetnoss  of  steeds,  indulging  in  sensual  license  upon 
earth,  and  expecting  as  their  reward  sensual  enjoyments  in 
pai'adise. 

20 


230  LECTTJRES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

Having  thus  identified  the  syml3ol  with  the  Saracens,  let 
us  now  turn  to  history,  and  read,  as  its  comment  upon  the 
inspired  page,  the  history  and  deeds  of  the  Saracens.  In 
the  year  629  the  Saracens  first  emerged  from  the  desert ; 
in  A.  D.  636  they  burst  forth  like  an  impetuous  torrent; 
Damascus  and  Jerusalem  fell  successively  before  them ;  and 
that  very  year,  the  year  636,  a  mosque  Avas  raised  on  the 
site  of  tbe  illustrious  temple  of  the  Jew,  and  the  cry  of  the 
muezzin  wafted  by  that  au*  which  had  once  sounded  with 
the  Psalms  of  David,  and  echoed  with  hosannas  to  David's 
greater  Son.  In  ten  years,  from  634  to  644,  the  Mohamme- 
dans reduced  3.600  cities,  destroyed  4,000  churches,  and 
built  1,400  mosques;  and  the  illustration  of  the  scorpion- 
sting  is  in  these  words :  "Ye  Christian  dogs,  ye  know  your 
choice ;  the  Koran,  the  tribute,  or  the  cimeter."  And 
those  that  were  spared,  they  tormented  with  the  scorpion- 
sting  of  the  lawless  tyranny  which  they  exercised. 

But  the  progress  of  these  Saracens,  you  see  in  the  sacred 
page,  had  two  limits :  first,  they  were  not  to  hurt  any  that 
had  the  seal  of  God  upon  their  foreheads ;  and,  secondly, 
they  were  not  to  hurt  the  green  grass,  or  any  green  thing. 
Now,  both  of  these  are  remarkably  fulfilled.  The  first  was 
fulfilled  in  this  fact :  at  the  time  that  they  went  forth,  accord- 
ing to  the  language  of  Gibbon,  "the  Christians  of  the 
seventh  century  had  relapsed  into  the  semblance  of  Pagan- 
ism; their  public  and  private  prayers  w'ere  addressed  to 
images  and  relics  that  disgraced  the  temples  of  the  heathen : 
and  the  throne  of  the  Almighty  was  darkened  by  a  cloud 
of  martyrs,  saints,  and  angels,  the  objects  of  popular  vener- 
ation." These  idolatrous  Christians,  who  were  not  sealed 
of  God,  were  the  objects  of  the  punishment  of  the  locust 
propagandists,  commissioned  not  to  hurt  the  secret  and  hid- 
den saints  of  the  Most  High,  but  to  visit  with  retributive 
and  penal  judgments  those  who  had  turned  the  Christian 
fivne  into  an  idol  temple,  and  wreathed  around  the  brow  of 
a  creature  the  glories  that  were  the  exclusive  prerogatives 
of  God  himself  And  secondly,  they  were  not  to  hurt  any 
green  thing.  How  remarkable  it  is,  these  are  almost  the 
very  words  of  the  commission  given  to  the  Saracens : 
"Destroy  no  palm-trees  nor  fields  of  corn :  cut  down  no 
fruit-trees  nor  green  things."  The  Goths  turned  every 
garden  into  a  desert ;  the  Saracens  sacredly  preserved  them. 


THE   MOSLEM   AND   UIS   END.  231 

And  lastly,  they  had  a  king  over  them.  The  Goths  and 
Vandals  adopted  the  religion  of  the  country  they  conquered; 
the  Saracens  carried  their  religion  uith  them,  and  their 
subjection  to  Mohammed,  their  prince  and  prophet,  ^^"as  part 
and  parcel  of  their  most  solemn  duty.  Their  mission  Avas 
not  to  annihilate  the  apostate  Christians  of  the  East,  but  to 
torment  them  ;  and  the  time  of  their  tormenting  them  was 
limited  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Every  time  that 
the  Saracens  tried  to  go  beyond  their  limit  they  were 
checked  and  repressed.  Twice  they  were  foiled  in  their 
attempts  at  Constantinople.  They  invaded  France  ;  and  if 
they  had  succeeded  in  subjugating  that  illustrious  land, 
Europe  at  this  moment  had  probably  been  jNIohammedan. 
"Charles  Martel,  the  Hammer,"'  the  historian  says,  "  beat 
them  back ;  and  Europe  owes  the  existence  of  its  liberties 
and  its  religion  to  his  heroic  efforts."  But  as  soon  as  they 
had  finished  their  commission,  we  find  they  immediately 
paused.  Ilallamsays:  "Their  conquests  are  less  perplexing 
than  the  cessation  of  them."  Gibbon  says :  "  The  calm  histo- 
rian must  study  to  explain  by  what  means  church  and  state 
were  saved  from  impending  desolation."  The  true  reason  was 
the  prophetic  record.  The  period  of  their  action — that  is, 
of  their  inflicting  torment  on  apostate  Christendom  —  was 
limited  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  years.  Mark  how  true 
this  is. 

In  612  Mohammed  first  proclaimed  his  mission.  "Who," 
he  said,  "  will  lie  my  Grand  Vizier?  *'  The  answer  given 
by  his  chief  follower  was:  "0  prophet!  I  am  the  man. 
Whoever  rises  against  thee,  I  will  dash  out  his  teeth,  tear 
out  his  locks  and  his  eyes,  and  rip  him  up."  In  755  the 
dynasty  of  the  Oramiades  was  supplanted  in  the  caliphate 
by  the  Abassides ;  and  thus  they  were  rent  into  antagonistic 
powers.  In  702  another  capital.  Medina  al  Salem,  further 
east,  was  selected,  and  there  the  locust  settled.  Now  hear 
what  the  historian  says.  "The  colossus,"  says  Sismondi, 
"  that  had  bestridden  the  whole  south,  Avas  now  broken;  and 
this  revolt  did  more  for  the  deliverance  of  Europe  from  the 
Moslem  than  the  battle  of  Poictiers."  And  Gibbon  says: 
"  War  was  now  no  longer  the  passion  of  the  Saracens.  The 
luxury  of  the  caliphs  relaxed  their  nerves,  and  terminated 
the  progress  of  the  Arabian  empire."    Now,  sec  how  chrono- 


232  LECTURES    OF    DK.    CUMillNQ. 

logically  exact  this  was.  In  612  was  the  commencement 
of  the  mission  of  Mohammed ;  762  was  tlic  cessation  of  their 
progress  and  their  conquest.  Deduct  612  from  7G2,  and 
you  have  150  years,  called  in  the  Apocalypse  150  pro- 
phetic days,  —  the  precise  period  during  which  their  action, 
progress,  and  success  were  to  continue. 

We  have  thus  seen  wha^,  is  called  in  the  Apocalypse  the 
first,  or  the  Saracenic  wo.  Let  us  turn  to  the  Turkish,  or 
the  second  wo,  as  it  is  therein  called.  Heretofore,  Western 
Christendom  had  been  the  chief  suiferer  from  the  Saracen ; 
Eastern  Christendom  was  no  less  guilty  than  the  West ;  and 
hence  on  the  very  spot — and  this  will  explain  why  we 
identify  Turkey  and  Mohammedanism  with  the  Euphrates  — 
on  which  the  Saracens  had  settled  down,  namely,  Bagdad, 
on  the  Euphrates,  the  angels  of  retribution  were  again  let 
loose,  and  the  Turks  marched  forth,  under  Toghrul  Beg, 
their  constituted  head,  to  promote  the  secular  power  and 
religious  dominion  of  Islam,  and  to  devastate  Eastern  Christ- 
endom, as  the  Saracens  before  them  had  devastated  Asia 
and  the  West.  Alp  x\rslan,  the  valiant  lion,  crossed  the 
Euphrates,  —  the  commencement  of  Turkish  propagandism, 
—  in  1063,  at  the  head  of  immense  Turkish  cavalry;  and 
began  a  career  of  resistless  conquests  over  the  whole  of 
Eastern  Christendom,  till  he  fell  by  the  knife  of  the  assas- 
sin. Malek  Shah  succeeded,  and  spread  his  victories,  in  the 
words  of  Gibbon,  -'from  the  spicy  groves  of  Arabia  Felix 
to  Constantinople."  The  crusaders  averted  for  a  season  the 
downfall  of  the  imperial  city,  but  in  so  doing  they  consoli- 
dated the  forces  of  the  Ottoman;  and,  at  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  Turks  crossed  tlie  Danube;  and 
Gibbon  says  :  "  For  the  first  time  during  a  thousand  years. 
Constantinople  was  surrounded  both  on  the  Asiatic  and  the 
European  sides."  The  Apocalypse  calls  them,  "the  num- 
ber of  the  armies  of  horsemen."  Let  us  recollect,  the 
Western  warriors  were  chiefly  infantry,  the  Eastern  war- 
riors were  chiefly  cavalry.  Gibbon  sa3's  :  "  The  myriads  of 
Turkish  horse  overspread  the  Greek  empire;"  and  Peter 
the  Hermit,  and  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  wrote  to  their  breth- 
ren in  the  West  in  these  words  :  "  We  call  for  help  ;  the  forces 
of  the  Turks  are  fierce,  and  more  numerous  than  the  Sara- 
cens ;  they  have  in  anticipation  devoured  the  whole  world." 


THE   MOSLEM   AND   HIS    END.  233 

Thus,  the  closer  we  read,  the  clearer  we  see  the  accuracy 
of  the  Apocalyptic  s^'^nibols,  as  wo  proceed.  It  is  said  that 
"out  of  their  mouths  cauic  smoke  and  brimstone  and  fire." 
At  this  very  time,  and  primarily  at  the  siege  of  Constanti- 
nople, gunpowder  and  cannon  were  used,  at  least  on  a  vast 
scale,  and  a  park  of  artillery  planted  with  its  devastating 
thunders  against  Constantinople  ;  and  it  is  in  the  veiy  chap- 
ter in  which  Gibbon  describes  the  fall  of  the  mistress  of 
the  East,  that  he  alludes  to  the  mighty  effects  of  the  recent 
and  mysterious  mixture  of  saltpetre,  sulphur,  and  charcoal. 
"  Canst  thou  cast  a  cannon,"  said  the  Sultan  Mohammed  to 
the  founder,  "large  enough  to  batter  down  the  walls  of 
Constantinople?"  The  cannon  were  founded  at  Adrian- 
ople  ;  and  soon  the  battlements  and  fortifications  that  had 
stood  the  shock  of  a  thousand  years  fell  before  the  Ottoman 
cannon.  Gibbon  says  :  "  Double  walls  were  reduced  by  the 
cannon ;  the  Turks  rushed  in  at  the  breaches  ;  Constanti- 
nople was  subdued  ;  lier  empire  was  subverted,  her  religion 
trampled  in  the  dust,  by  the  Moslem  conqueror;  " — or,  in 
the  words  of  the  inspired  penman,  by  these  three,  the  fire, 
the  smoke  (or  the  carbon),  and  the  sulphur,  which  issued 
out  of  their  mouths,  Avas  the  third  part  of  Christendom 
made  desolate. 

Then  it  is  added,  as  if  still  further  to  identify  them  : 
"Their  power,"  their  lioima,  that  is,  their  jurisdiction,  "is 
in  their  tails."  Wliat  a  strange  expression  is  this!  A 
crown  is  a  mark  of  a  king,  a  diadem  of  an  emperor,  a  sword 
o.f  a  military  prefect ;  but  a  horse's  tail,  what  can  that  be  a 
mark  of?  Notice  again  the  accuracy  of  Apocalyptic  sym- 
bols. In  one  of  the  great  battles  of  the  Turks,  the  com- 
mander lost  the  standard  of  his  army ;  he  innnediateiy  dis- 
mounted, cut  off  his  horse's  tail,  hoisted  it  on  a  pole,  and 
made  tliat  the  rallying  standard  of  the  Turks.  And  wluit 
is  the  fact  to  this  day?  A  pasha  of  two,  or  a  pasha  of  three 
horse-tails,  is  now  the  description  of  Turkish  dignitaries  and 
rulers ;  and  under  the  shelter  of  these,  in  past  days,  they 
have  not  "hurt,"  as  we  render  it,  but  "done  injustice." 
So  accurately  do  we  identify  the  words  of  prophecy  with 
the  chapters  of  liistory  !  Now,  mark  again  :  "  Just  as  we 
had  specified  exactly  the  time — 150  years  —  during  which 
the  Saracens  were  to  punish  apostate  Christendom,  we  have 
20* 


234  LECTURES   OF  DR.    CUMMINO. 

now  the  period  fixed  during  wliich  the  Turks  are  to  punish 
the  same,  though  more  Eastern,  apostate  Christendom.  The 
time  is  appointed,  —  a  day,  a  month,  a  year,  and  an  hour. 
Now,  prophetically  viewed, — for  prophecy  is  just  like 
the  map  of  a  country,  upon  the  scale  of  an  eighth  of  an 
inch  for  a  mile.  —  you  have  here  a  day  for  a  year,  as  you 
may  easily  see  by  referring  to  various  parts  of  Scripture  ; 
a  month,  30  years ;  a  year,  365]  years ;  an  hour,  15^- 
days.  Add  all  these  together,  and  they  amount  to  39(J 
years.  106  days.  Now  let  us  see  how  exactly  this  prophecy 
was  fulfilled  in  fact.  The  Turks  started  on  their  mission 
from  Bagdad,  on  the  Euphrates,  on  Jan.  18th,  1057.  On 
May  29th,  1453,  their  last  exploit  was  consummated,  when 
Constantinople  fell.  Deduct  Jan.  18th,  1057,  from  May 
29th,  1453,  and  you  have  the  prophecy  chronologically 
proved  by  fact,  or,  as  is  proclaimed  in  the  prophecy  of  the 
Apocalypse,  the  duration,  396  years,  106  days. 

Having  seen  the  successes  achieved  by  the  Saracens,  and 
next  by  the  Turks ;  having  seen  how  history  sustains  and 
bears  out  the  words  of  prophecy,  I  observe  that  the  waves 
of  the  Euphratean  flood,,  that  overflowed  its  banks,  and 
spread  from  the  spicy  groves  of  Arabia  to  Constantinople, 
are  now  retreating  to  their  shores,  or,  rather,  drying  up  in 
their  channels,  and,  since  1820,  the  flood  has  evaporated,  day 
by  day ;  and,  as  the  Euphratean  flood  retreats  from  the 
lands  it  has  covered  as  by  a  deluge,  and  evaporates  in  the 
sunshine,  or  rolls  to  its  ancient  channel,  thousands  of  true 
Christians,  Armenians,  and  Greeks,  not,  as  their  fathers 
have  been,  the  worst  specimens  of  a  corrupt  Christianity, 
but,  by  the  instrumentality  of  missionaries,  regenerated, 
illumined,  and  sanctified,  begin  to  raise  their  heads,  and  to 
aspire  after  that  glorious  supremacy  when  Christ  shall  be 
King  over  all  the  earth,  Constantinople  may  be  Christian ; 
yet  it  may  not,  and  it  must  not,  be  Russian.  St.  Sophia 
need  not  be  under  the  auspices  of  the  Czar,  nor  the  Patri- 
arch of  Constantinople  made  a  subject  of  the  Patriarch  of 
St.  Petersburgh ;  and  yet,  the  decay  of  Mohammedanism  is 
as  plainly  proclaimed  in  this  sacred  volume  as  any  one  fact 
that  can  happen  in  history.  During  the  sixth  vial,  which 
began  about  1820,  the  Euphrates  is  to  be  dried  up,  to  make 
way  for  the  kings  of  the  East.     It  would  take  too  much 


THE    MOSLEM   AND    HIS   END.  235 


space  if  I  were  to  quote  all  the  proofs  of  this  drying  up 
ever  since  1820,  when  the  prophecy  tells  us  it  was  to  begin. 
The  2300  years  of  Daniel,  I  have  already  said,  were  to  end 
in  1820.  At  that  period,  then,  Mohammedanism  was  to 
begin  to  give  way.  Now,  just  read  the  facts  of  the  case. 
One  interpreter,  who  wrote  upwards  of  two  hundred  years 
ago,  accepted  the  symbol  of  the  "drying  up  of  the  Euphra- 
tes," as  predicted  umler  the  sixth  Apocalyptic  vial,  as  the 
gradual  exhaustion  of  the  Mohammedan  power;  and  almost 
every  prophetic  student  since  that  time  has  furnished 
stronger,  and,  to  my  mind,  absolutely  conclusive,  proofs  of 
the  accuracy  of  this  interpretation. 

Another  eminent  interpreter  stated,  at  least  a  hundred 
years  ago,  that  about  1820  the  Turkish  power  would  begin 
its  course  of  wasting  and  decay.  That  year,  namely,  1820, 
is  universally  accepted  by  prophetic  students  as  the  begin- 
ning of  the  '"drying  up  of  the  Euphrates,"  or  decadence 
of  Mohammedanism  primarily  in  Europe,  and  progressively 
over  all  Asia. 

It  was  in  1820  that  Ali  Pasha,  of  Yanina,  proclaimed 
his  independence,  and  hastened  on  the  Greek  insurrection. 
The  Suliot  Greeks  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  in  Novem- 
ber of  the  same  year  against  the  Sultan.  In  April,  1821, 
the  Moreote  Greeks  broke  out  in  insurrection.  Northern 
Greece,  the  Isles  of  the  x-Egean  Sea,  and  the  Danubian  prov- 
inces revolted.  In  the  Morca,  the  Greeks  destroyed  an  army 
of  30,000  Turks  in  1823.  By  sea,  the  Greeks  beat  the 
Turkish  and  Egyptian  fleets  in  September,  1824.  In  1827, 
when  the  Greeks  seemed  for  a  season  to  give  way,  the  com- 
bined fleets  of  England,  France,  and  Russia  destroyed  the 
Turco-Egyptian  fleets  at  the  battle  of  Navarino,  saved 
Greece,  and  struck  a  blow  against  Turkey  from  which  the 
Ottoman  Empire  has  never  recovered.  In  1828,  Russia, 
feeling  insulted,  dechued  war,  crossed  the  Balkan,  entered 
Adrianople,  and  Constantinople  was  saved  only  by  the  in- 
terposition of  the  Western  ambassadors.  But,  by  this  last 
step,  the  exhaustion  of  Turkey,  or  "drying  up  of  the  Eu- 
phrates," was  very  greatly  increased.  Servia,  Wallachia, 
and  Moldavia  were  all  practically  detached  from  Turkey, 
and,  in  the  same  yeai',  the  Turkish  province  of  Algiers  be- 
came a  French  colony.     As  if  the  fanaticism  of  Turkey, 


236 


LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 


which  used  to  be  its  strength,  had  degenerated  into  folly 
and  infatuation,  she  massacred  the  Janissaries,  her  right 
arm,  and  found  this  reform  was  her  ruin. 

Afterwards  came  the  rebellion  of  Mehemet  Ali,  the  Pasha 
of  Egypt;  and  such  was  his  progress,  that,  if  the  Western 
powers  had  not  again  interposed,  Turkey  had  been  annihi- 
lated. .From  1821  to  1831,  earthquakes,  plague,  and  pesti- 
lence almost  depopulated  Bagdad,  INIecca,  and  Medina. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  Walsh,  the  British  chaplain  at  Constantino- 
ple, Avriting  in  1831,  says,  as  I  have  already  quoted : 
"Within  the  last  twenty  years,  Constantinople  has  lost 
more  than  half  its  population.  Two  conflagrations  hap- 
pened while  I  was  in  Constantinople,  and  destroyed  15,000 
houses.  The  silent  operation  of  the  plague  is  continually 
active,  though  not  always  alarming.  It  will  be  no  exagge- 
ration to  say,  that,  within  the  period  mentioned,  from  three 
hundred  thousand  to  four  hundred  thousand  have  been  pre- 
maturely swept  away  in  this  one  city  of  Europe,  by  causes 
which  were  not  operating  in  any  other, —  conflagration,  pesti- 
lence, and  civil  commotion."  I  give  these  historic  facts  to 
show  that  what  the  earliest  students  of  prophecy  were  led  to 
infer,  respecting  the  gradual  exhaustion  of  the  Ottoman 
power,  and  the  date  of  the  beginning  of  its  decline,  has 
been  exactly  fulfilled. 

So  striking  are  the  prophetic  dates  relating  to  the 
exhaustion  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  that  one  interpreter  of 
prophecy  in  1840  fixed  the  period  of  its  end  at  1849,  as 
the  earliest  date ;  and  almost  every  student  of  prophecy,  of 
any  note  or  name,  ]Mr.  Elliot,  Dr.  Keitli^  Mr.  Bickerstaff, 
and  ]Mr.  Birks,  were  unanimous  in  regarding  its  utter  over- 
throw as  just  at  our  doors,  before  the  present  invasion  of 
Russia.  I  do  not  say  that  our  views  of  unfulfilled  prophecy 
are  to  regulate  cabinets ;  but  it  is  interesting  to  us  calmly 
yet  patiently  to  look  on  the  present  complications  in  the 
East  as  the  irresistible  harbingers  of  the  speedy  extinction 
of  error ;  and  we  almost  regret  that  our  great  nation  should 
be  dragged  into  war,  as  if  to  avert  what  we  regard  as  a 
foregone  conclusion,  prophetically  viewed,  and  a  consumma- 
tion which,  on  other  grounds,  we  would  hasten  rather  than 
delay.  But  we  do  not  war  to  maintain  the  Crescent,  but 
to  beat  back  from  us  and  ours  a  powerful  despotism.     Stu- 


THE    MOSLEM    AND    HIS  END.  237 

dents  of  prophecy  are  neither  fatalists  nor  prophets,  but 
investigators  of  those  glimpses  of  the  future  which  the  Au- 
thor of  the  Bible  has  been  pleased  to  reveal. 

The  same  prophetic  record  that  thus  indicates  the  near 
downftill  of  Mohammedanism,  informs  us  that  this  down- 
fall is  to  make  way  for  the  march  of  ''kings  from  the 
sun-rising."'  Whether  this  refers  to  the  Jews,  as  I  believe, 
or  to  the  emergence  of  the  ancient  Oriental  churches,  is 
matter  of  dispute.  But  this  is  plain,  that  the  Christians  of 
the  East  will  gain,  in  all  respects,  by  the  waning  of  the 
Crescent,  and  prove  a  better  obstruction  to  Russia's  ambi- 
tion than  the  Turks. 

Now,  it  seems  clear,  from  the  words  of  Daniel's  prophecy, 
that  the  great  Mohammedan  delusion, —  for  such,  as 
Christians,  we  must  regard  it, —  and  its  head  and  strength, 
the  Ottoman  dynasty,  will  not  l)e  struck  down  by  a  blow, 
as  Russia  expects,  but  must,  if  prophecy  be  true,  gradu- 
ally and  progressively  expire.  It  dies  out;  its  waters  are 
literally  evaporated ;  it  expires  of  age,  decrepitude,  and 
decay.  I  do  not  believe,  from  pi'ophecy,  that  the  Russian 
eagle  will  be  allowed  to  tear  it  to  pieces,  or  to  have  the 
SulUui's  palace  for  its  eyrie.  I  do  not  believe  that  it  will 
be  suftered  to  disappear  till  the  last  pulse  beats  feebly  in  the 
Mohammedan  heart;  but,  whether  there  is  peace  or  war, 
Turkey  is  equally  exhausted.  If  Russia  persists  in  her 
infatuated  ambition,  Turkey,  as  a  jNIohammcdan  power,  will 
be  destroyed ;  if  Russia  is  compelled,  before  the  bayonets 
of  Europe,  to  retire  to  the  Kremlin,  the  Turkish  exchequer 
will  ])e  exhausted ;  and,  in  either  case,  the  prophecy  of  its 
expii-y  will  l)e  fulfilled.  It  will  "  be  broken  without  hand." 
The  waters  of  the  great  Euphrates  will  gradually  evaporate. 
Our  country,  at  this  moment,  in  taking  the  part  of  the 
Ottoman  Empire,  seems  to  me  fulfilling  a  solemn  and  a 
sacred  duty.  Treaty,  pioniiie#compact,  and  the  everlasting 
duty  of  the  strong  to  sympathize  with  the  weak  and  the 
oppressed,  vindicate  the  conduct  of  our  country.  Nations 
have  duties  and  responsibilities,  just  as  individuals  have. 
This  protection  does  not  imply  that  we  approve  of  Moham- 
medanism, or  that  we  wish  prosperity  to  the  Crescent,  or 
that  we  have  forgotten  the  barbarities  of  the  Saracen,  and 
the  fearful  tragedies  inflicted  upon  Europe  by  the  Turk; 


238 


LECTURES    OF   DR.    CUMMINa. 


but,  let  our  worst  of  enemies  be  injured  and  insulted,  it  ia 
the  duty  of  a  Christian  to  interpose  and  protect  him.  Sup- 
pose our  worthy  ecclesiastical  "ruler,"  L)r.  Wiseman,  were 
insulted  in  the  streets  of  London  by  a  mob,  I  should  feel  it 
my  duty  to  interpose  and  protect  him.  Because  he  dislikes 
me,  and  I  dislike  his  principles,  I  will  not  forget  that  I  am 
a  man,  and  whatever  is  human  commands  my  sympathies, 

—  still  less,  that  I  am  a  Christian,  bound  to  sympathize  with 
suffering,  as  such,  and  heap  coals  of  fire  upon  the  head  of 
those  that  are  opposed  to  me. 

And,  in  the  next  place,  it  is  most  remarkable,  that,  if  we 
turn  to  the  prophet  Ezekiel, —  and  for  one  moment  I  will 
do  so, —  we  shall  find  that,  while  Russia  is  unconsciously 
hastening  the  end  predicted  in  prophecy,  every  act  of  her 
conduct  is  reprobated  and  condemned.  In  the  Hebrew 
Observer^  written  by  unconverted  Jews,  there  is  a  leading 
article,  of  the  date  of  February  10,  1854,  most  ably  writ- 
ten, called  the  "Eastern  Question;"  which  states  that 
Russia  is  the  Meshech  and  the  Tubal,  or  the  Ross,  Moscow, 
and  Tobolsk  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament;  and  these 
Jews  say,  that,  if  the  Russian  Autocrat  should  sweep  away 
Turkey,  their  existence  as  Jews  in  Turkey  is  gone.  Under 
the  Crescent,  they  say  they  have  had  freedom, —  under  the 
Autocrat,  they  have  had  cruelty,  tyranny,  and  murder ;  and, 
if  he  should  get  the  upper  hand,  they  must  leave  the  realms 
of  the  East.  And  then  what  will  be  the  case  ?  Erom  the 
sun-rising,  as  predicted  in  prophecy,  the  Jews  will  march 
homeward,  or  fiee,  like  doves  to  their  windows,  and  find  no 
rest  for  the  soles  of  their  feet  till  they  arrive  in  Palestine, 

—  theirs  by  everlasting  right,  and  the  decree  that  cannot  be 
abolished.  Now,  in  Ezekiel,  chap.  88,  we  have  this  remark- 
able prophecy, —  so  remarkable  that  it  seems  to  me  to  refer 
to  these  days :  "  Son  of  man,  set  thy  face  against  Gog,  the 
land  of  Magog,  the  chief  prirfce  of  Meshech  and  Tubal,  and 
prophecy  against  him," — (how  like  the  names  Moscow  and 
Tobolsk  !)  — "  and  say,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  Behold, 
I  am  against  thee,  0  Gog,  the  chief  prince  of  Meshech  and 
Tubal :  and  I  will  turn  thee  back,  and  put  hooks  into  tliy 
jaws,  and  I  will  bring  thee  forth,  and  all  thine  army,  horses 
and  horsemen,  all  of  them  clothed  with  all  sorts  of  armor, 
even  a  great  company,  with  bucklers  and  shields,  all  of 


THE  MOSLEM   AND    UIS    ENl).  239 

them  handling  swords :  Persia,  Ethiopia,  and  Lybia  with 
thcni ;  all  of  them  •with  shield  and  helmet :  Gomer,  and  all 
his  bands ;  the  house  of  Togarmah  of  the  north  quarters, 
and  all  his  bands :  and  many  people  with  thee.  Be  thou 
prepared,  and  prepare  for  thyself,  thou,  and  all  thy  com- 
pany that  are  assembled  unto  thee,  and  be  thou  a  guard  unto 
them.'' — (How  like  what  is  taking  place  !) — "  After  many 
days  thou  shalt  be  visited :  in  the  latter  years  thou  shalt 
come  into  the  land  that  is  brought  back  from  the  sword,  and 
is  gathered  out  of  many  people,  against  the  mountains  of 
Israel,  which  have  been  always  waste  :  but  it  is  brought 
forth  out  of  the  nations,  and  they  shall  dwell  safely,  all  of 
them.  Thou  shalt  ascend  and  come  like  a  storm,  thou  shalt 
be  like  a  cloud  to  cover  the  land,  thou,  and  all  thy  bauds, 
and  many  people  with  thee.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God ;  It 
shall  also  come  to  pass,  that  at  the  same  time  shall  things 
come  into  thy  mind,  and  thou  shalt  think  an  evil  thought" 
—  (suppose  this  addressed  to  the  Autocrat :)  —  "  and  thou 
shalt  say,  I  will  go  up  to  the  land  of  unwalled  villages ;  I 
will  go  to  them  that  are  at  rest,  that  dwell  safely,  all  of 
them  dwelling  without  walls,  and  having  neither  bars  nor 
gates,  to  take  a  spoil,  and  to  take  a  prey ;  to  turn  thine 
hand  upon  the  desolate  places  that  are  now  inhabited,  and 
upon  the  people  that  are  gathered  out  of  the  nations,  which 
have  gotten  cattle  and  goods,  that  dwell  in  the  midst  of  the 
land.  Sheba,  and  Dedan,  and  the  merchants  of  Tarshish, 
with  all  the  young  lions  thereof,  shall  say  unto  thee,  Art 
thou  come  to  take  a  spoil  ?  hast  thou  gathered  thy  company 
to  take  a  prey?  to  carry  away  silver  and  gold,  to  take 
away  cattle  and  goods,  to  take  a  great  spoil  ?  Therefore, 
son  of  man,  prophes}'  and  say  unto  Gog,  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God ;  In  that  day  when  my  people  of  Israel  dwelleth 
safely,  shalt  thou  not  know  it  ?  And  thou  shalt  come  from 
thy  place  out  of  the  north  parts,  thou,  and  many  people 
with  thee,  all  of  them  riding  upon  horses,  a  great  company, 
and  a  mighty  army :  and  thou  shalt  come  up  against  my 
people  of  Israel,  as  a  cloud  to  cover  the  land ;  it  shall  be  in 
the  latter  days,  and  I  will  bring  thee  against  my  land,  that 
the  heathen  may  know  me,  when  I  shall  be  sanctified  in 
thee,  0  Gog,  before  their  eyes.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  God  ; 
Art  thou  he  of  whom  I  have  spoken  in  old  time  by  my 


240  LECTURES    OF   DR.    CUMMINQ. 

servants,  the  prophets  of  Israel,  which  prophesied  in  those 
days  many  years  that  I  would  bring  thee  against  them  ? 
And  it  shall  come  to  pass  at  the  same  time,  when  Gog  shall 
come  against  the  land  of  Israel,  saith  the  Lord  God,  that 
my  fury  shall  come  up  in  my  face :  for  in  my  jealousy,  and 
in  the  fire  of  my  wrath,  have  I  spoken,  Surely  in  that  day 
there  shall  be  a  great  shaking  in  the  land  of  Israel." 

If  this,  then,  relate  —  and  it  relates  to  the  last  days  — 
to  Gog,  and  Magog,  and  Tubal,  as  the  representative  names 
of  Russia  and  its  chief  cities,  then  we  see  that  Avhilst  he 
fulfils,  as  the  axe  in  the  hand  of  the  Almighty,  prophe- 
cies that  relate  to  the  future,  he  is  not  thereby  exempt  from 
punishment,  or  free  from  guilt,  because  he  himself  is  a  free 
agent,  though  used  in  the  hands  of  Him  who  has  the  com- 
mand, and  the  control,  and  the  government  of  all.  Our 
views  of  pi'ophecy  are  not  to  modify  our  duties.  The  Czar 
may  fulfil  prophecies,  and  yet  be  most  guilty.  It  is  not 
our  business  to  fulfil  prophecies,  but  to  obey  precepts.  Be- 
cause, for  instance,  it  is  predicted,  "A  Jew  shall  be  a  scoff, 
a  by- word,  and  a  scorn,''  some  men  think  they  cannot  do  a 
more  Christian  act  than  spit  upon  a  Jew,  extract  his  teeth, 
maltreat  him,  and  call  him  by  bad  names.  Leave  God  to 
fulfil  the  prophecies  he  has  inspired ;  you  fulfil  the  duties 
he  has  laid  down, — justice,  mercy,  sympathy,  and  love. 

It  is  most  interesting  to  see  the  great  panorama  of  the 
future  sketched  in  its  minutest  details  on  the  sacred  page, 
and  to  witness  autocrats  from  their  thrones,  and  armies  from 
their  barracks,  rushing,  in  the  nineteenth  century,  to  fill  up 
the  outline  that  God  has  chalked  out  upwards  of  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  I  know  it  will  be  said,  Turkey  is  dying  ; 
it  will  soon  be  defunct ;  why  should  we  care  for  it  ?  I  an- 
swer,—  If  a  man  were  dying  of  consumption,  we  should 
not  think  of  knocking  him  on  the  head  and  killing  him 
outright;  on  the  contrary,  we  should  try  to  get  him 
the  warmest  blankets  and  the  most  nourishing  food,  and 
shelter  him  from  the  winds  and  the  biting  frost  and  the 
storms,  and  protract  his  life  to  the  latest  period.  And  be- 
cause Turkey  is  feeble,  because  it  is  dying  of  a  consumption 
that  is  obvious  and  inevitable,  that  is  no  reason  why  the 
Autocrat  should  strike  it  down,  and  why  nations  that  are 
Christian  should  stand  by  and  suffer  the  tyrant  to  inflict 
the  blow. 


THE    MOSLEM    AND    HIS   END.  241 

It  is  singular  enough  that  the  Turks  themselves  are 
almost  universally  persuaded  that  the  hour  of  their  doom 
has  struck.  At  tiiis  moment,  the  dead  that  die  in  the  Eu- 
ropean part  of  the  city  are  carried  across  tiie  Bosphorus 
and  buried  on  the  Asiatic  side,  where  they  think  they  will 
rest  in  peace.  They  have  also  a  tradition  amongst  them- 
selves, that  1854  ends  the  dynasty  of  the  Turk  in  Europe ; 
and  Napoleon  Bonaparte,  in  St.  Helena,  forty  years  ago, 
with  that  extraordinary  sagacity  with  which  that  great 
man's  mind  was  characterized,  said  :  "In  the  natural  course 
of  things,  in  a  few  years  Turkey  must  fall  to  Russia.  The 
greatest  part  of  her  population  are  Greeks,  who,  you  may 
say.  are  Russians.  The  Powers  it  would  injure  —  and  who 
cbuld  oppose  it? — are  England.  France,  Prussia,  and  Aus- 
tria. Now,  as  to  Austria,  it  will  be  very  easy  for  Russia 
to  engage  her  assistance  by  giving  her  Servia,  and  other 
provinces  bordering  upon  the  Austrian  dominions,  reaching 
near  to  Constantinople.  The  only  hypothesis  that  France 
and  England  may  ever  be  allied  with  sincerity,  will  be  in 
order  to  prevent  this.  But  even  this  alliance  will  not  avail. 
France,  England,  and  Prussia,  united,  cannot  prevent  it. 
Russia  and  Austria  can  at  any  time  effect  it.  Once  mistress 
of  Constantinople,  Russia  gets  all  the  commerce  of  the 
Mediterranean,  becomes  a  great  naval  power,  and  God  knows 
what  may  happen.  She  quari'els  Avith  you,  marches  off  to 
India  an  army  of  70,000  good  soldiers,  which  to  Russia 
is  nothing,  and  100,000  caunille,  Cossacks  and  others, 
and  England  loses  India,  Above  all  the  other  pow- 
ers, Russia  is  the  most  to  be  feared,  especially  by  you. 
Ilcr  soldiers  are  braver  than  the  Austrians,  and  she  has 
the  moans  of  raising  as  many  as  she  pleases.  In  bravery, 
the  French  and  English  soldiers  are  the  only  ones  to  he 
compared  to  them.  All  this  I  foresaw.  I  see  into  futurity 
further  than  others,  and  I  wanted  to  establish  a  barrier 
against  those  barbarians,  by  re-establishing  the  kingdom 
of  Poland,  and  putting  Poniatowski  at  the  head  of  it  as 
king :  but  your  imbeciles  of  ministers  would  not  consent. 
A  hundred  years  hence  I  shall  be  praised,  and  Europe, 
especially  England,  will  lament  that  I  did  not  succeed. 
Wiieu  they  see  the  finest  countries  in  Europe  overrun, 
and  a  prey  to  those  northern  barbarians,  they  will  say, 
21 


242  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

'  Napoleon  was  right.'  "  Now,  at  this  moment  the  Greek 
and  Armenian  Christians  are,  many  of  them,  being  trans- 
Lited  from  darkness  into  light,  and  from  the  kingdom  of 
Satan  into  that  of  God's  dear  Son.  At  present,  many  of 
the  Greek  and  Armenian  Christians,  as  a  body,  are  mucli 
less  truthful,  much  more  depraved,  than  even  the  worst  of 
the  Talks  ;  but  is  it  impossible  to  suppose  that  these  de- 
graded Christians  shall  be  the  subjects  of  a  new  and  a  noble 
resurrection  ?  —  that  the  Crescent  shall  not  wane  till  it 
disappears  before  the  Cross?  —  that  the  moon  of  Islam 
shall  not  set  till  it  is  merged  in  the  rising  splendor  of  the 
Sun  of  righteousness?  and  a  nation  Christian  to  its  core 
takes  the  place  of  the  Mohammedans,  and  forms  a  stronger 
barrier  to  Russian  ambition  and  Russian  domination  than  a 
dying,  exhausted,  and  decrepid  empire?  But  is  the  Mo- 
hammedan himself  impervious  to  light?  The  predicted  decay 
of  Mohammedanism  as  a  power  may  be  the  prophecy  of  her 
resurrection  as  a  Christian  dynasty.  Everybody  knows 
that  Turkey  of  1854  is  not  the  same  as  Turkey  in  the  days 
of  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  The  paddle-wheel  noAV  disturbs 
the  silence  of  the  Dardanelles ;  the  scream  of  the  railway 
whistle  echoes  from  the  walls  of  St.  Sophia ;  the  printing- 
press  is  busy  in  Constantinople  ;  our  newspapers  are  read 
by  the  Turks  :  a  spirit  of  reform  is  sweeping  the  Divan 
that  will  end  in  a  grand  reformation ;  and,  mainly  through 
the  instrumentality  of  American  missionaries,  the  Turks 
begin  to  discover  that  the  Christian  faith  is  not  that  de- 
graded and  brutish  superstition  which  has  hitherto  been  em- 
bodied in  the  miserable  specimens  that  have  dwelt  in  the 
midst  of  them  ;  and  the  ancient  savage  law,  which  made  it 
deatii  for  a  man  who  had  become  a  Mussulman  and  was  once 
a  Christian  to  revert  to  his  Christianity  again,  is  now  abol- 
ished;  and  so  late  as  1846  the  Armenian  patriarch,  accord- 
ing to  usage,  sent  in  the  names  of  thirteen  Protestants  to 
the  Sultan,  praying  that,  according  to  custom,  at  his  bid- 
ding, they  might  be  banished  from  the  land.  The  Sultan 
replied,  that  "  henceforth  no  subject  of  his  should  suffer  for 
his  religious  opinions."  The  greatest  persecutors  in  Turkey 
for  the  last  hundred  years  have  not  always  been  the  Mo- 
hammedans, Init,  I  say  it  with  shame,  the  professed  followers 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  have  been  too  often  intolerant ; 


THE    MOSLEM    AND    HIS    END.  243 

and  at  this  moment  the  greatest  advocates  of  liberty  are 
the  Sultan  and  his  Grand  A'izier,  not  perhaps  from  prin- 
ciple, but  policy  ;  and  a  thousand  times  sooner,  as  far  as 
secular  and  personal  freedom  is  concerned,  let  me  fall  into 
the  hands  of  the  Sultan  and  his  Grand  Vizier,  than  into 
the  hands  of  Pio  Nono  and  his  Grand  Vizier  in  Golden 
Stjuare. 

The  prophetic  decay  of  the  Turk,  as  the  bulwark  of 
Islam  docs  not  necessarily  mean  the  extinction  of  the 
Turk,  but  the  exchange  of  his  errors  for  everlasting  and 
glorious  truth.  Not  the  destruction  of  the  man,  but  the 
departure  of  his  superstition,  may  be  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecy.  This  is  the  existing  course  of  things  in  the 
East.  Christianity  is  not  a  religion  of  annihilation,  but 
of  amelioration,  elevation,  improvement ;  and  when  the 
present  dark  and  tainted  streams  of  the  Euphrates,  that 
liave  so  long  overflowed  the  fair  lands  of  Eastern  Christen- 
dom, shall  have  retired,  or  rolled  back  to  their  ancient 
channels,  or  rather  evaporated  beneath  tiie  beams  of  the 
unsetting  sun,  the  lands  from  which  those  floods  have  ebbed 
away  shall  be  covered  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as 
the  waters  of  the  ocean  cover  the  channels  of  the  great 
deep;  and  that  river  whose  streams  make  glad  the  city  of 
our  God  shall  roll  where  the  Euphrates  had  rolled  its  tide 
before;  and 

"  With  finthcms  of  devotion. 

Ships  from  the  isles  shall  meet, 
And  pour  the  wealth  of  ocean " 
lu  tribute  at  His  feet. 

*'  For  Christ  shall  have  dominion 
O'er  river,  sea,  and  shore  ; 
Far  .OS  the  eattle's  pinion 
Or  dove's  light  wing  can  soai\" 

What  is  called  the  "Eastern  question"  maybe  lulled 
for  a  little,  but  only  to  be  resuscitated  with  more  terrible 
results.  The  source  of  its  protracted  agitation  lies  in  the 
moral  condition  of  the  East.  The  age,  also,  in  which  we 
live  has  for  its  awful  and  its  ominous  motto, —  "  Overturn, 
overturn,  overturn."  This  is  the  partialdestiny  of  thegood  ; 
^Ye  trust  it  is  the  doom  of  all  that  is  unholy  and  evil. 
What  comes  from  God  is  sustained   by  him.     What  is  evil 


244  LECTURES    OF    DR.    GUMMING. 

is  -weak.  The  Crescent  is  doomed  to  wane ;  the  Tiara 
trembles  on  the  head  of  him  that  wears  it ;  and  superstition, 
in  all  its  aspects,  Avill  soon  flee  before  the  approach  of  an 
unsetting  sun ;  and  while  statesmen  in  their  official  ca- 
pacity, and  nations  in  their  national  capacity,  are  doing 
their  duty  to  the  oppressed,  and  trying  to  stay  the  oppressor, 
let  us  Christians  do  ours,  by  extending  missions,  circulating 
God's  word,  urging  onward  into  every  land  that  blessed 
kingdom  Avhich  conquers  by  truth,  not  arms, —  reigns  by 
love,  not  force, —  and  is  "not  meat  nor  drink,  but 
righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost." 

I  grieve  that  our  brave  and  heroic  troops  should  be  sent 
to  bleed  and  fall  on  distant  shores ;  I  grieve  over  the  ex- 
istence of  war;  but  I  believe  that  the  war  now  provoked  by 
the  ambition  of  the  Russian  Autocrat,  and  accepted  by  our 
country,  is  a  Avar,  not  only  of  policy,  but  of  justice,  of 
truthfulness,  of  mercy.  The  guilt  rests  on  Russia.  I  pity 
the  infatuated  Autocrat ;  may  his  punishment  be  signal,  or 
his  repentance  speedy  !  May  his  ambition  meet  with  re- 
ward !  May  he  learn  in  the  Kremlin  that  justice  and 
truth  and  mercy  are  stronger  than  Cossacks,  and  more  en- 
during than  armed  battalions;  and  whilst  our  intrepid 
soldiers  on  the  land,  and  our  brave  sailors  on  the  Baltic  and 
the  Black  Sea,  inspired  by  a  sense  of  the  justice  of  their  cause, 
are  battling  not  only  for  mercy  to  the  oppressed,  but  for 
protection  to  our  dear  native  land, — whilst  they,  like 
Joshua,  are  warring  in  the  plains  below,  let  us,  like  Moses, 
lift  up  our  hearts  and  hands,  and  pray  that  He  "  to  whom 
the  shields  of  the  earth  belong  "  would  uphold  and  bless 
the  banners  of  the  right. 

We  have  no  sympathy  with  the  Koran,  no  desire  to  up- 
hold the  Mosope,  no  wish  to  see  the  Osmanli  strike  deeper, 
or  extend  wider,  his  withering  foot-print.  But  Ave  have  no 
less  dread  of  autocratic  tyranny,  and  of  the  lust  of  power. 
Acquiesence  in  this  matter  would  be  connivance.  It  would 
not  avert  ultimate  war.  We  pray  that  the  Prince  of  Peace 
may  soon  spread  his  love  and  law  over  all  the  earth. 


THE   NEARNESS   OF   THE   END. 

We  are  led  from  all  signs  to  infer  that  the  meeting- place 
of  all  the  lines  of  God's  providential  work  on  earth  is  very 
near.  Paganism  is  breaking  up  all  over  the  East.  Mo- 
hammedanism is  in  its  death  struggle,  in  vain  attempting  to 
avert  its  waning.  Popery  is  artificially  propped  up,  and 
preparing  to  take  its  exodus  to  eternal  nigiit.  The  Ganges, 
the  Euphrates,  and  the  Tiber  are  all  gleaming  with  dawn- 
ing glories  of  a  nearing  day.  The  Jordan,  too,  is  not  still : 
it  heaves  with  the  hopes  and  expectations  of  Judah.  Life 
from  the  dead  is  reaching  the  hearts  of  buried  nations,  and 
they  rise  in  rapid  succession  to  their  feet;  they  only  wnit 
for  the  order,  "Unloose,  and  let  go  free."  We  stand  on 
the  margin  of  two  ages ;  we  hear  the  dying  moan  of  one,  and 
catch  from  afar  the  aAvakening  anthem  of  the  other.  While 
all  that  is  holy,  beneficent,  and  true  is  starting  to  its  feet, 
all  that  is  infidel,  superstitious,  and  evil,  under  the  prince 
of  the  power  of  the  air,  is  mustering  to  battle.  Satan  puts 
forth  gigantic  energies,  —  fraud,  sophistry,  cruelty,  oppres- 
sion !  The  imprisonment  of  the  Madiai,  and  Miss  Cunning- 
liame,  and  others,  is  proof  of  what  he  would  do  if  he  could. 
The  deadly  and  mischievous  errors  he  sows,  like  tares  in  a 
field,  are  proofs  of  his  attempts  to  poison  what  he  cannot 
persecute,  to  disturb  what  he  is  unable  to  destroy.  The 
allies  of  Pio  Nono  and  of  Voltaire  will  yet  coalesce  against 
Christianity,  in  order  to  keep  back  a  swelling  tide  of  light 
and  love,  which  sweeps  them  from  an  earth  they  have  too 
long  polluted  by  their  presence. 

In  the  midst  of  this,  let  me  add,  the  church  and  the  peo- 
ple of  God  are  safe :  they  are  enclosed  in  everlasting  arms ; 
the  shield  of  Omnipotence  is  over  them.  They  may  pass 
through  a  sharp  niglit.  but  it  will  be  a  short  one.  0,  what 
a  solemn  position  do  we  occupy,  if  my  conclusions  be  right ! 
The  shadows  of  1854  fall  back  into  one  eternity  and  forward 
21* 


246  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

into  another.  We  stand  on  an  isthmus  washed  by  the  waves 
of  time  and  wasted  by  the  waters  of  eternity.  The  terrible 
silence  of  the  age  is  the  suspensive  pause,  when  nations  hold 
their  breath  before  the  shock  comes.  The  sure  and  glorious 
termination  alone  reconciles  us  to  its  pressure.  Into  a  holy, 
and  happy,  and  blessed  land  the  surf  of  the  troubled  present 
rolls ;  and  our  Aveary  hearts  will  leap  to  that  land  as  a  babe 
leaps  to  its  mother's  bosom. 

Are  we  among  the  saints  of  God?  It  is  time  to  lay  aside 
our  ecclesiastical  and  sectarian  quarrels.  The  very  ground 
on  which  we  stand  will  soon  be  calcined  by  the  last  fire,  and 
the  miserable  Shibboleths  which  distract  Christendom  dis- 
appear in  smoke.  All  society  is  rending  into  two  great  di- 
visions. By  and  by  there  will  be  no  Jesuits,  no  Ultramon- 
tanes,  no  Franciscans,  no  Tractarians,  but  out-and-out 
Papists.  By  and  by  there  will  be  no  Churchmen,  no  Dis- 
senters, but  out-and-out  Christians.  All  society  is  splitting 
into  two  great  antagonistic  masses  :  every  man  is  taking  his 
place ;  and  those  Avhom  we  call,  in  courtesy,  Tractarians  — 
who  profess  to  hold  the  via  media,  neither  going  with  us 
nor  with  the  opposite  side  —  Avill  find  themselves  like  men 
between  two  advancing  armies,  overwhelmed  by  the  fire  of 
both.  I  say,  society  is  splitting  into  two  great  masses.  To 
which  do  we  belong  ?  To  Christ  —  that  is,  the  church  of 
the  living  God :  or  to  Antichrist  —  that  is,  the  great  Apos- 
tasy ?  0,  let  us  not  quarrel  about  lesser  things !  There 
is  love  enough  on  Calvary  to  lift  the  earth  to  heaven  :  there 
is  light  enough  at  Pentecost  to  irradiate  the  wide  world ; 
there  is  warmth  enough  on  the  hearthstone  of  our  Father's 
house  to  make  every  heart  glow  with  ecstasy  and  thankful- 
ness !  Let  us  rather  quench  than  kindle  the  fires  of  passion. 
Let  us  pray  that  the  temperature  of  our  Christian  life  may 
be  so  raised,  that  we  shall  neither  see  nor  feel  the  petty 
scintillations  of  angry  quarrels. 

"  Between  us  all  let  oceans  roll 
Yet  still,  from  either  beach 
The  voice  of  blood  shall  reach. 
More  audible  than  speech,  — 
'  We  are  one  !  '  " 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  all  the  great  times  and  dates  of 
prophecy  meet  and  mingle  about  the  year  1864.     I  do  not 


THE   NEARNESS   OF   THE   END.  247 

say  that  that  year  will  be  the  close  of  this  world.  I  do  not 
prophesy ;  I  do  not  foretell  the  future :  I  only  forth  tell  what 
God  has  said ;  but  I  do  feel,  that  if  18G-4  be  not  the  close  of 
the  age  that  now  is,  and  the  commencement  of  a  better  one, 
it  will  be  a  time  unprecedented  since  the  beginning,  —  por- 
tentous, startling,  and  terrible  to  the  enemies  of  God ;  but 
glorious,  holy,  and  full  of  joyous  scenes  to  the  people  of 
God. 

Clinton  proves  that  the  seventh  millenary  of  the  world 
begins  in  18G3.  The  Jews  of  ancient  and  modern  times  all 
look  to  the  beginning  of  tlie  seven  thousand  years  for  their 
Sabbalisfiios,  or  millennial  rest.  Is  the  end  of  the  age  so 
near  ?  — 

"  The  groans  of  nature  in  this  netlier  world, 
Which  heaven  has  heard  for  ages,  have  an  end 
Foretold  by  prophets,  and  by  poets  sung; 
The  time  of  rest,  the  promised  Sabbath,  comes. 
Six  tliousand  years  of  sorrow  have  well  nigh 
FulfiU'd  their  tardy  and  disastrous  course 
Over  a  sinful  world  ;  and  what  remains 
Of  this  tempestuous  state  of  human  things 
Is  merely  as  the  working  of  a  sea 
Before  a  calm  that  rocks  itself  to  rest." 

Thus  all  fingers  point  to  this  rapidly  approaching  crisis. 
All  things  indicate  that  the  moment  that  we  occupy  is 
charged  with  intense  and  inexhaustible  issues.  Never  was 
man  so  responsible  !  Never,  in  the  prospect  of  what  is  com- 
ing on  the  earth,  was  man's  position  so  solemn  !  But  evil 
shall  not  gain  the  day.  Truth  and  love  will  emerge  from 
every  conflict,  beautiful,  and  clothed  with  victory.  The 
days  of  Infidelity  and  Popery  are  numbered.  The  waters 
of  evil  must  soon  ebb  from  the  earth  they  have  soiled.  The 
approaching  genesis  will  surpass  in  beauty  and  in  glory  the 
old.  The  churcii  of  Christ  will  lay  aside  her  soiled  gar- 
ments, her  ashen  raiment,  and  put  on  her  bridal  dress,  her 
coronation  robes ;  and  the  nations  will  look  up  to  her  in  ad- 
miration, earnest  as  the  waves  of  the  ocean  rise  up  to  the 
bright  full  moon  enthroned  above  them.  The  sunrise  of 
approaching  day  will  strike  the  earth,  and  awaken  its  long 
sdcnt  hymns,  and  clothe  creation's  barest  branches  with 
amaranthine  blossoms.  Poor  Nature,  that  has  so  long 
moaned  like  a  stricken  creature  to  its  God  from  its  solitary 
lair,  shall  cease  her  groans  and  travail  and  expectancy ;  for 


248  LECTURES   OF   DR.    GUMMING. 

God  •will  wipe  away  her  tears,  and  on  her  fair  and  beauti- 
ful and  holy  brow,  crowned  and  kingdomed,  other  orbs 
in  the  sky,  her  handmaidens,  will  gaze  in  ecstasy  and 
thankfulness  and  praise.  "And  God  shall  wipe  away  all 
tears  from  their  eyes;  and  there  shall  be  no  more  death, 
neither  sorrow,  nor  crying ;  neither  shall  there  be  any  more 
pain.  And  there  shall  be  no  night  there.  For  these  say- 
ings are  faithful  and  true." 


i 


THE  NEW  HEAVENS 


THE     NEW     EAETH 


I 


SERMON. 

BY    THE    REV.    THOMAS    CHALMERS,    D.L>.,   LL.D. 

Nevertheless  wo,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for  a  new  heavens  and 
new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." — 2  Peter  3  :  13. 


There  is  a  limit  to  the  revelations  of  the  Bible  about 
futurity,  and  it  were  a  mental  or  spiritual  trespass  to  go 
beyond  it.  The  reserve  which  it  maintains  in  its  informa- 
tions we  also  ought  to  maintain  in  our  inquiries, —  satisBed 
to  know  little  on  every  subject  Avhere  it  has  communicated 
little,  and  feeling  our  way  into  regions  which  are  at  present 
unseen,  no  farther  than  the  light  of  Scripture  will  carry  us. 

But  while  we  attempt  not  to  be  "wise  above  that  which 
is  written,'"  we  should  attempt,  and  that  most  studiously,  to 
be  Avise  up  to  that  whieii  is  written.  The  disclosures  are 
very  few  and  very  partial,  which  are  given  to  us  of  that 
bright  and  beautiful  economy  which  is  to  survive  the  ruins 
of  our  present  one.  But  still  there  are  such  disclosures  — 
and  on  the  principle  of  the  things  that  arc  revealed  belong- 
ing unto  us,  Ave  have  a  right  to  Avalk  up  and  down,  for  the 
purpose  of  observation,  over  the  wiiole  actual  extent  of 
them. 

What  is  made  known  of  the  details  of  immortality  is 
but  small  in  the  amount,  nor  are  we  furnished  Avith  the  ma- 
terials of  anything  like  a  graphical  or  picturesque  exhibition 
of  its  abodes  of  blessedness.  But  still  somewhat  is  made 
knoAvn.  and  Avhich,  too,  may  be  addressed  to  a  higher  prin- 
ciple than  curiosity,  being,  like  every  other  Scripture,  "prof- 
itable both  for  doctrine  and  for  instruction  in  righteousness." 

In  the  text  l)efore  us,  there  arc  two  leading  points  of  in- 
formation, Avhich  Ave  sliould  like  succcessively  to  remark 
upon.  The  first  is,  that  in  the  new  economy  Avhich  is  to  be 
reared  for  the  accommodation  of  the  blessed,  there  Avill  be 
materialism,  not  merely  new  heaA'cns,  but  also  a  neAV  earth. 


252    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

The  second  is,  that,  as  distinguished  from  the  present,  which 
is  an  abode  of  rebellion,  it  will  be  an  abode  of  righteousness. 
I.  We  know  historically  that  earth,  that  a  solid  material 
earth,  may  form  the  dwelling  of  sinless  creatures,  in  full 
converse  and  friendship  with  the  Being  who  made  them  ; 
that,  instead  of  a  place  of  exile  for  outcasts,  it  may  have  a 
broad  avenue  of  communication  with  the  spiritual  world,  for 
the  descent  of  ethereal  beings  from  on  high ;  that,  like  the 
member  of  an  extended  family,  it  may  share  in  the  regard 
and  attention  of  the  other  members,  and  along  with  them 
be  gladdened  by  the  presence  of  him  who  is  the  Father  of 
them  all.  To  inquire  how  this  can  be,  w^ere  to  attempt  a 
wisdom  beyond  Scripture  :  but  to  assert  that  this  has  been, 
and  therefore  may  be,  is  to  keep  most  strictly  and  modestly 
within  the  limits  of  the  record.  For  we  there  read,  that 
God  framed  an  apparatus  of  materialism,  which,  on  his  own 
surveying,  he  pronounced  to  be  all  very  good,  and  the  lead- 
ing features  of  which  may  still  be  recognized  among  the 
things  and  the  substances  that  are  around  us, —  and  that  he 
created  man  with  the  bodily  organs  and  senses  which  we 
now  wear, —  and  placed  him  under  the  very  canopy  that  is 
over  our  heads, — and  spread  around  him  a  scenery,  perhaps 
lovelier  in  its  tints,  and  more  smiling  and  serene  in  the  whole 
aspect  of  it,  but  certainly  made  up,  in  the  main,  of  the 
same  objects  that  still  compose  the  prospect  of  our  visible 
contemplations, —  and  there,  working  with  his  hands  in  a 
garden,  and  with  trees  on  every  side  of  him,  and  even  with 
animals  sporting  at  his  feet,  was  this  inhabitant  of  earth,  in 
the  midst  of  all  those  earthly  and  familiar  accompaniments, 
in  full  possession  of  the  best  immunities  of  a  citizen  of 
heaven, —  sharing  in  the  delight  of  angels,  and  while  he 
gazed  on  the  very  beauties  which  we  ourselves  gaze  upon, 
rejoicing  in  them  most  as  the  tokens  of  a  present  and  pre- 
siding Deity.  It  Avere  venturing  on  the  region  of  con- 
jecture to  affirm,  whether,  if  Adam  had  not  fallen, 
the  earth  that  we  now  tread  upon  would  have  been  the 
everlasting  abode  of  him  and  his  posterity.  But  certain  it 
is,  that  man,  at  the  first,  had  for  his  place  this  world,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  for  his  privilege,  an  unclouded  fellowship 
with  God,  and,  for  his  prospect,  an  immortality  which  death 
was  neither  to  intercept  nor  put  an  end  to.     He  was  terras- 


SERMON,    BY   DR.    CHALMERS.  253 

trial  in  respect  of  condition,  and  yet  celestial  in  respect 
both  of  character  and  enjoyment.  His  eye  looked  outwardly 
on  a  landscape  of  earth,  while  his  heart  breathed  upwardly 
in  the  love  of  heaven.  And  though  he  trodc  the  solid  plat- 
form of  our  world,  and  was  compassed  about  with  its  hori- 
zon, still  was  he  within  the  circle  of  God's  fiivorcd  crea- 
tion, and  took  his  place  among  the  freemen  and  the  denizens 
of  the  great  spiritual  commonwealth. 

This  may  serve  to  rectify  an  imagination  of  which  wc 
think  that  all  must  be  conscious, —  as  if  the  grossness  of 
materialism  was  only  for  those  Avho  had  degenerated  into  the 
grossness  of  sin  ;  and  that,  when  a  spiritualizing  process  had 
purged  away  all  our  corruption,  then,  by  the  stepping-stones 
of  a  death  and  a  resurrection,  we  should  be  borne  away  to 
some  ethereal  region,  where  sense,  and  body,  and  all  in  the 
shape  either  of  audible  sound  or  of  tangible  substance,  were 
unknown.  And  hence  that  strangeness  of  impression  which 
is  felt  by  you,  should  the  supposition  be  offered,  that  in  the 
place  of  eternal  blessedness  there  will  be  ground  to  walk 
upon ;  or  scenes  of  luxuriance  to  delight  the  corporeal 
senses ;  or  the  kindly  intercourse  of  friends  talking  famil- 
iarly, and  by  articulate  converse  together ;  or,  in  short, 
anything  that  has  the  least  resemblance  to  a  local  territory, 
filled  with  various  accommodations,  and  peopled  over  its 
whole  extent  by  creatures  formed  like  ourselves, —  having 
bodies  such  as  we  now  wear,  and  fiiculties  of  perception, 
and  thought,  and  mutual  communication,  such  as  we  now 
exercise.  The  common  imagination  that  we  have  of  para- 
dise on  the  other  side  of  death,  is,  that  of  a  lofty  aerial  re- 
gion, where  the  inmates  float  in  ether,  or  arc  mysteriously 
suspended  upon  nothing  ;  where  all  the  warm  and  sensilde 
accompaniments  which  give  such  an  expression  of  strength, 
and  life,  and  coloring,  to  our  present  habitation,  are  attenu- 
ated into  a  sort  of  spiritual  clement  that  is  meagre,  and 
imperceptible,  and  utterly  uninviting  to  the  eyo  of  mortals 
here  beloAv ;  where  every  vestige  of  materialism  is  done 
aAvay,  and  nothing  left  but  certain  unearthly  scenes  that 
have  no  power  of  allurement,  and  certain  unearthly  ecsta- 
cies,  with  which  it  is  felt  impossible  to  sjanpathize.  The 
hokiei's  of  this  imagination  forget,  all  the  while,  that  really 
there  is  no  essential  connection  between  materialism  and 
22 


254    TUE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

sin ;  that  the  world  which  we  now  inhabit  had  all  the  am- 
plitude and  solidity  of  its  present  materialism  before  sin 
entered  into  it ;  that  God,  so  far,  on  that  account,  from 
looking  slightly  upon  it,  after  it  had  received  the  last  touch 
of  his  creating  hand,  reviewed  the  earth,  and  the  waters, 
and  the  firmament,  and  all  the  green  herbage,  with  the  liv- 
ing creatures,  and  the  man  whom  he  liad  raised  in  dominion 
over  them,  and  he  saw  everything  that  he  had  made,  and 
l:)chold  it  was  all  very  good.  They  forget  that  on  the  birth 
of  materialism,  when  it  stood  out  in  the  freshness  of  those 
glories  which  the  great  Architect  of  Nature  had  impressed 
upon  it,  that  then  the  "  morning  stars  sang  together,  and  all 
the  sons  of  God  shouted  for  joy."  They  forget  the  appeals 
that  are  made  everywhere  in  the  Bible  to  this  material 
workmanship;  and  how,  from  the  face  of  these  visible 
heavens,  and  the  garniture  of  this  earth  that  avc  tread 
upon,  the  greatness  and  the  goodness  of  God  are  reflected 
on  the  view  of  his  worshippers.  No,  my  brethren,  the  ob- 
ject of  the  administration  we  sit  under  is  to  extirpate  sin, 
but  it  is  not  to  sweep  away  materialism.  By  the  convul- 
sions of  the  last  day  it  may  be  shaken,  and  broken  down 
from  its  present  arrangements,  and  thrown  into  such  fitful 
agitations  as  that  the  whole  of  its  existing  frame- work  shall 
fall  to  pieces,  and  by  a  heat  so  fervent  as  to  melt  its  most 
solid  elements  may  it  be  utterly  dissolved.  And  thus  may 
the  earth  again  become  without  form  and  void,  but  without 
one  particle  of  its  substance  going  into  annihilation.  Out 
of  the  ruins  of  this  second  chaos,  may  another  heaven  and 
another  earth  be  made  to  arise  ;  and  a  new  materialism, 
with  other  aspects  of  magnificence  and  beauty,  emerge  from 
the  wreck  of  this  mighty  transformation ;  and  the  Avorld  be 
peopled  as  before,  Avith  the  varieties  of  material  loveliness, 
and  space  be  again  lighted  up  into  a  firmament  of  material 
splendor. 

Were  our  place  of  everlasting  blessedness  so  purely 
spiritual  as  it  is  commonly  imagined,  then  the  soul  of 
man,  after,  at  death,  having  quitted  his  body,  would  quit 
it  conclusively.  That  mass  of  materialism  with  which  it 
is  associated  upon  earth,  and  which  many  regard  as  a 
load  and  an  incumbrance,  would  have  leave  to  putrefy  in 
the  grave  without  being   revisited  by  supernatural  power, 


SERMON,    15Y    DR.    CHALMERS.  255 

or  raised  again  out  of  the  inanimate  dust  into  wbicli  it 
had  resolved.  If  the  body  be  indeed  a  clog  and  a  confine- 
ment to  the  spirit,  instead  of  its  commodious  tenement, 
then  would  the  spirit  feel  liglitened  by  the  departure  it  had 
made,  and  expatiate,  in  all  the  buoyancy  of  its  emancipated 
powers,  over  a  scene  of  enlargement.  And  this  is,  doubt- 
less, the  prevailing  imagination.  But  why,  tlien,  after 
having  made  its  escape  from  such  a  thraldom,  should  it  ever 
recur  to  the  prison-house  of  its  old  materialism,  if  a  prison- 
house  it  really  be?  Why  should  the  disengaged  spirit 
again  be  flistcned  to  the  drag  of  that  grosser  and  heavier 
substance,  which  many  think  has  only  the  effect  of  weighing 
down  its  activity,  and  infusing  into  the  pure  clement  of 
mind  an  ingredient  which  serves  to  cloud  and  to  enfeeble  it. 
In  other  words,  what  is  the  use  of  a  day  of  resurrection,  if 
the  union  Avhich  then  takes  place  is  to  deaden  or  to  reduce 
all  those  energies  that  arc  commonly  ascribed  to  the  living 
principle,  in  a  state  of  separation  ?  But,  as  a  proof  of  some 
metaphysical  delusion  upon  this  subject,  the  product,  per- 
haps, of  a  wrong  though  fashionable  philosophy,  it  would 
appear,  that  to  embody  the  spirit  is  not  tlie  stepping-stone 
to  its  degradation,  1)ut  to  its  preferment.  The  last  day  will 
be  a  day  of  triumpli  to  the  righteous, —  because  the  day 
of  the  re-entrance  of  the  spirit  to  its  much-loved  abode, 
where  its  faculties,  so  fur  from  being  shut  up  into  captivity, 
will  find  their  free  and  kindred  development  in  such  mate- 
rial organs  as  are  suited  to  them.  The  fact  of  the  resur- 
rection proves,  that,  with  man  at  least,  the  state  of  a  dis- 
embodied spirit  is  a  state  of  unnatural  violence, —  and  that 
the  resurrection  of  his  body  is  an  essential  step  to  the 
higliest  perfection  of  which  he  is  susceptible.  And  it  is 
indeed  an  homage  to  that  materialism,  Avhich  many  are  for 
expunging  from  the  future  state  of  the  universe  altogetlier, 
—  that  ere  the  immaterial  soul  of  man  has  reached  the  ul- 
timate glory  and  blessedness  which  are  designed  for  it,  it 
must  return  and  knock  at  that  very  grave  where  lie  the 
mouldered  remains  of  the  body  which  it  wore,  — and  there 
intpiisition  must  be  made  for  the  flesh,  and  the  sinews,  and 
the  bones,  which  the  power  of  corruption  has  perhaps  for 
centuries  before  assimilated  to  the  earth  that  is  around 
them, —  and  there,  the  minute  atoms  nmst  be  re-assembled 


256    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

into  a  stnicture  that  bears  upon  it  the  form  and  the  linea- 
ments, and  the  general  aspect  of  a  man, —  and  the  soul 
passes  into  this  material  frame-work,  which  is  hereafter  to 
be  its  lodging-place  for  ever, —  and  that,  not  as  its  prison, 
but  as  its  pleasant  and  befitting  habitation, —  not  to  be 
trammelled,  as  some  would  have  it,  in  a  hold  of  materialism, 
but  to  be  therein  equipped  for  the  services  of  eternity, — 
to  walk  embodied  among  the  bowers  of  our  second  paradise, 

—  to  stand  embodied  in  the  presence  of  our  God. 

There  will,  it  is  true,  be  a  change  of  personal  constitution 
between  a  good  man  before  his  death  and  a  good  man  after 
his  resurrection, —  not,  however,  that  he  will  be  set  free 
from  his  body,  but  that  he  will  be  set  free  from  the  corrupt 
principle  that  is  in  his  body, — not  the  materialism  by  which 
he  is  now  surrounded  will  be  done  away,  but  that  the  taint 
of  evil  by  which  this  materialism  is  now  pervaded  will  be 
done  away.  Could  this  be  effected  without  dying,  then 
death  would  be  no  longer  an  essential  stepping-stone  to 
paradise.  But  it  would  appear  of  the  moral  virus  which 
has  been  transmitted  downwards  from  Adam,  and  is  now 
spread  abroad  over  the  whole  human  family, —  it  would  ap- 
pear that,  to  get  rid  of  this,  the  old  fabric  must  be  taken 
down,  and  reared  anew ;  and  that,  not  of  other  materials, 
but  of  its  own  materials,  only  delivered  of  all  impurity,  as 
if  by  a  refining  process  in  the  sepulchre.  It  is  thus  that 
what  is  "  sown  in  weakness  is  raised  in  power,"  — and  for 
this  purpose  it  is  not  necessary  to  get  quit  of  materialism, 
but  to  get  quit  of  sin,  and  to  purge  materialism  of  its  mal- 
ady.   It  is  thus  that  the  dead  shall  come  forth  incorruptible, 

—  and  those,  we  are  told,  who  are  alive  at  this  great  catas- 
trophe shall  suddenly  and  mysteriously  be  changed.  While 
Ave  are  compassed  about  Avith  these  vile  bodies,  as  the  apos- 
tle emphatically  terms  them,  evil  is  present,  and  it  is  well, 
if,  through  the  working  of  the  spirit  of  grace,  evil  does  not 
prevail.  To  keep  this  besetting  enemy  in  check  is  the 
task  and  the  trial  of  our  Christianity  on  earth ;  and  it  is 
the  detaching  of  this  poisonous  ingredient  which  constitutes 
that  for  which  the  believer  is  represented  as  groaning  earn- 
estly, even  the  redemption  of  the  body  that  he  now  wears, 
and  which  will  then  be  transformed  into  the  likeness  of 
Christ's  glorified  body.     And  this  will  be  his  heaven,  that 


SERMON,    BY    DR.    CHALMERS.  257 

he  will  serve  God  without  a  strutigle,  and  in  a  full  gale  of 
spiritual  delight, —  because  with  the  full  concurrence  of  all 
the  feelings  and  all  the  faculties  of  his  regenerated  nature. 
Before  death,  sin  is  only  repressed ;  after  the  resurrection, 
all  sin  will  be  exterminated.  Here  he  has  to  maintain  the 
combat,  with  a  tendency  to  evil  still  lotlging  in  his  heart, 
and  working  a  perverse  movement  among  his  inclinations  ; 
but  after  his  warflire  in  this  world  is  accomplished,  he  will 
no  longer  be  so  thwarted  ;  and  he  Avill  sit  him  down  in  an- 
other world,  with  the  repose  and  the  triumpli  of  victory  for 
his  everlasting  reward.  The  great  constitutional  plague  of 
his  nature  will  no  longer  trouble  him ;  and  there  will  be  the 
charm  of  a  genial  affinity  between  the  purity  of  his  heart 
and  the  purity  of  the  element  he  breathes  in.  Still  it  will 
not  be  the  purity  of  spirit  escaped  from  materialism,  but  of 
spirit  translated  into  a  materialism  that  has  been  clarified  of 
evil.  It  will  not  be  the  purity  of  souls  unclothed  as  at 
death,  but  the  purity  of  souls  that  have  again  been  clothed 
upon  at  the  resurrection. 

But  the  highest  homage  that  we  know  of  to  materialism 
is  that  which  God,  manifest  in  the  flesh,  has  rendered  to  it. 
That  lie,  the  Divinity,  should  have  wrapt  his  unfathomable 
essence  in  one  of  its  coverings,  and  expatiated  amongst  us 
in  the  palpable  form  and  structure  of  a  man;  and  that  he 
should  have  chosen  such  a  tenement,  not  as  a  temporary- 
abode,  but  should  have  borne  it  with  him  to  the  place  which 
he  now  occupies,  and  where  he  is  now  employed  in  prepar- 
ing the  mansions  of  his  followers ;  that  he  should  have  en- 
tered within  the  vail,  and  be  now  seated  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Father,  with  the  very  body  which  was  marked  by  tiic 
nails  upon  his  cross,  and  Avherewith  he  ate  and  drank  after  his 
resurrection;  that  he  who  repelled  the  imagination  of  his 
disciples,  as  if  they  had  seen  a  spirit,  by  bidding  them  han- 
dle him  and  see  ;  and  subjecting  to  their  familiar  touch  the 
ilesh  and  the  bones  that  encompassed  him;  that  he  should  now 
be  throned  in  universal  supremacy,  and  wielding  the  whole 
power  of  heaven  and  earth,  have  every  knee  to  bow  at  his 
name,  and  every  tongue  to  confess,  and  yet  all  to  the 
glory  of  God  the  Father, —  that  humanity,  that  substantial 
and  embodied  humanity,  should  thus  be  exalted,  and  a  voice 
of  adoration  from  every  creature  be  lifted  up  to  the  Lamb 
22* 


258    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEAV  EARTH. 

for  ever  and  ever, —  does  this  look  like  the  abolition  of  ma- 
terialism, after  the  present  system  of  it  is  destroyed ;  or 
does  it  not  rather  prove  that,  transplanted  into  another  sys- 
tem, it  will  be  preferred  to  celestial  honors,  and  prolonged 
in  immortality  throughout  all  ages  ? 

It  has  been  our  careful  endeavor,  in  all  that  we  have 
said,  to  keep  within  the  limits  of  the  record,  and  to  offer 
no  other  remarks  than  those  which  may  fitly  be  suggested 
by  the  circumstance,  that  a  new  earth  is  to  be  created, 
as  well  as  a  new  heavens,  for  the  future  accommodation 
of  the  righteous.  We  have  no  desire  to  push  the  specu- 
lation beyond  what  is  written,  but  it  were,  at  the  same 
time,  well,  that,  in  all  our  representations  of  the  immortal 
state,  there  was  just  the  same  force  of  coloring  and  the 
same  vivacity  of  scenic  exhibition  that  there  is  in  the  Ncav 
Testament.  The  imagination  of  a  total  and  diametric  op- 
position between  the  region  of  sense  and  the  region  of 
spirituality  certainly  tends  to  abate  the  interest  with 
which  we  might  otherwise  look  to  the  perspective  that  is 
on  the  other  side  of  the  grave;  and  to  deaden  all  those 
sympathies  that  we  else  might  have  with  the  joys  and  the 
exercises  of  the  blest  in  paradise.  To  rectify  this,  it  is  not 
necessary  to  enter  on  the  particularities  of  heaven, —  a 
topic  on  which  the  Bible  is  certainly  most  sparing  and 
reserved  in  its  communicatians.  But  a  great  step  is  gained 
simply  by  dissolving  the  alliance  that  exists  in  the  minds 
of  many  between  the  two  ideas  of  sin  and  materialism  ;  or 
proving,  that,  when  once  sin  is  done  away,  it  consists  with 
all  we  know  of  God's  administration  that  materialism  shall  be 
perpetuated  in  the  full  bloom  and  vigor  of  immortality. 
It  altogether  holds  out  a  warmer  and  more  alluring  pic- 
ture of  the  elysium  that  awaits  us,  Avhen  told,  that  there 
will  be  beauty  to  delight  the  eye ;  and  music  to  regale  the 
ear  ;  and  the  comfort  that  springs  from  all  the  charities 
of  intercourse  between  man  and  man,  holding  converse  as 
they  do  on  earth,  and  gladdening  each  other  with  the  be- 
nignant smiles  that  play  on  the  human  countenance,  or  the 
accents  of  kindness  that  fall  in  soft  and  soothing  melody 
from  the  human  voice.  There  is  much  of  the  innocent, 
and  much  of  the  inspiring,  and  much  to  affect  and  elevate 
the  heart,  in  the  scenes  and  the  contemplations  of  mate- 


I 


SERMON,    BY   DR.    CHALMERS.  259 

rialism ;  and  we  do  hail  the  information  of  our  text,  that, 
after  the  dissolution  of  its  present  frame-work,  it  will  again 
be  varied  and  decked  out  anew  in  all  the  graces  of  its 
unfading  verdure  and  of  its  unbounded  variety, —  that  in 
addition  to  our  direct  and  ])crsonal  view  of  the  l)eity,  when 
he  comes  down  to  tabernacle  with  men,  we  shall  also  have 
the  reflection  of  him  in  a  lovely  mirror  of  his  own  work- 
manship ;  and  that,  instead  of  licing  transported  to  some 
abode  of  dimness  and  of  mystery,  so  remote  from  human 
experience  as  to  be  beyond  all  comprehension,  we  shall 
walk  for  ever  in  a  land  replenished  with  those  sensible  de- 
lights, and  those  sensible  glories,  which,  we  doubt  not,  will 
lie  most  profusely  scattered  over  the  "  new  heavens  and 
the  new  earth,  wherein  dwcllcth  righteousness." 

II.  But  though  a  paradise  of  sense,  it  will  not  be  a  par- 
adise of  sensuality.  Though  not  so  unlike  the  present 
world  as  many  apprehend  it,  there  will  be  one  point  of  total 
dissimilarity  betwixt  them.  It  is  not  the  entire  substitu- 
tion of  spirit  for  matter  that  will  distinguish  the  future 
economy  from  the  present.  But  it  will  be  the  entire  sub- 
stitution of  ri2:htcousncss  for  sin.  It  is  this  which  signal- 
izes  the  Christian  from  the  Mahometan  paradise ;  not  that 
sense,  and  substance,  and  splendid  imagery,  and  the  glories 
of  a  visible  creation  seen  with  bodily  eyes,  are  excluded 
from  it,  but  that  all  which  is  vile  in  principle,  or  voluptu- 
ous in  impurity,  will  be  utterly  excluded  from  it.  There 
will  be  a  firm  earth,  as  we  have  at  present,  and  a  heaven 
stretched  over  it,  as  we  have  at  present ;  and  it  is  not  by 
the  absence  of  these,  but  by  the  absence  of  sin,  that  the 
abodes  of  immortality  will  be  characterized.  There  will 
both  be  heavens  and  earth,  it  would  appear,  in  the  next 
great  administration, —  and  with  this  speciality  to  mark  it 
from  the  present  one,  that  it  will  be  a  heavens  and  earth 
"wherein  dwelleth  righteousness." 

Now,  though  the  first  topic  of  information  that  we  educed 
from  the  text  may  be  regarded  as  not  very  practical,  yet 
the  second  topic  on  which  I  now  insist  is  most  eminently 
so.  Were  it  the  great  characteristic  of  that  spirituality 
which  is  to  obtain  in  a  future  heaven,  that  it  was  a  s})iritu- 
ality  of  essence,  then  occupying  and  pervading  the  place 
from  which  materialism  has  been  swept  away,  we  could  not 


260    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

by  any  possible  method,  approximate  the  condition  we  are 
in  at  present  to  the  condition  we  are  to  hold  everlastingly. 
We  cannot  ctherealize  the  matter  that  is  around  us,  neither 
can  we  attenuate  our  own  bodies,  nor  bring  down  the  slight- 
est degree  of  such  a  heaven  to  the  earth  that  we  now  in- 
habit. But  when  we  are  told  that  materialism  is  to  be  kept 
up,  and  that  the  spirituality  of  our  future  state  lies  not  in 
the  kind  of  substance  which  is  to  compose  its  fi-ame-work, 
but  in  the  character  of  those  who  people  it,  this  puts,  if 
not  the  fulness  of  heaven,  at  least  a  foretaste  of  heaven, 
within  our  reach.  We  have  not  to  strain  at  a  thing  so  im- 
practicable as  that  of  diluting  the  material  economy  which 
is  without  us ;  we  have  only  to  reform  the  moral  economy 
that  is  within  us.  We  are  now  walking  on  a  terrestial  sur- 
face, not  more  compact,  perhaps,  than  the  one  we  shall 
hereafter  walk  upon ;  and  are  now  Avearing  terrestial  bodies, 
not  firmer  and  more  solid,  perhaps,  than  those  we  shall 
hereafter  wear.  It  is  not  by  working  any  change  upon 
them  that  we  could  realize,  to  an  extent,  our  future  heaven. 
And  this  is  simply  done  by  opening  the  door  of  our  heart 
for  the  influx  of  heaven's  affections, —  by  bringing  the  whole 
man,  as  made  up  of  soul,  and  spirit,  and  body,  under  the 
presiding  authority  of  heaven's  principles. 

This  will  make  plain  to  you  how  it  is  that  it  could  be 
said  in  the  New  Testament,  that  the  "kingdom  of  heaven 
was  at  hand," — and  how,  in  that  book,  its  place  is  marked 
out,  not  by  locally  pointing  to  any  quarter  and  saying,  Lo, 
here,  or  lo,  there,  but  by  the  simple  affirmation  that  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  within  you, —  and  how,  in  defining 
what  it  was  that  constituted  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  there 
is  an  enumeration,  not  of  such  circumstances  as  make  up 
an  outward  condition,  but  of  such  feelings  and  qualities  as 
make  up  a  character,  even  righteousness,  and  peace  and  joy 
in  the  Holy  Ghost, —  and  how  the  ushering  in  of  the  new 
dispensation  is  held  equivalent  to  the  introduction  of  this 
kingdom  into  the  world, —  all  making  it  evident  that  if  the 
purity  and  the  principles  of  heaven  begin  to  take  effect  upon 
our  heart,  what  is  essentially  heaven  begins  with  us  even  in 
this  world;  that  instead  of  ascending  to  some  upper  region, 
for  the  purpose  of  entering  it,  it  may  descend  upon  us,  and 
make  an  actual  entrance  of  itself  into  our  bosoms ;  and  that 


SERMON,    BY   DR.    CUALMERS.  261 

SO  far,  therefore,  from  that  remote  and  inaccessible  thing 
■which  many  do  regard  it,  it  may,  through  the  influence  of 
the  word  which  is  nigh  unto  you,  and  of  the  Spirit  that  is 
given  to  prayer,  bo  lighted  up  in  the  inner  man  of  an  in- 
dividual upon  earth,  "whose  person  may  even  here  exemplify 
its  graces,  and  whose  soul  may  even  here  realize  a  measure 
of  its  enjoyments. 

And  hence  one  great  purpose  of  the  incarnation  of  our 
Saviour.  He  came  down  amongst  us  in  the  full  perfection 
of  heaven's  character, and  has  made  us  see  that  it  is  a  char- 
acter which  may  be  embodied.  All  its  virtues  were  in  his 
case  infused  into  a  corporeal  frame-work,  and  the  substance 
of  these  lower  regions  was  taken  into  intimate  and  abiding 
association  with  the  spirit  of  the  higher.  The  ingredient 
which  is  heavenly  admits  of  being  united  with  the  ingredi- 
ent which  is  earthly, —  so  that  we  who  by  nature  are  of  the 
earth,  and  earthly,  could  we  catch  of  that  pure  and  celestial 
element  which  made  the  man  Christ  Jesus  to  differ  from  all 
other  men,  then  might  we  too  be  formed  into  that  character 
by  which  it  is  that  the  members  of  the  family  above  differ 
from  the  outcast  family  beneath.  Now,  it  is  expressly  said 
of  him,  that  he  is  set  before  us  as  an  example ;  and  we  arc 
required  to  look  to  that  living  exhibition  of  him,  where  all 
the  graces  of  the  upper  sanctuary  are  beheld  as  in  a  picture, 
and,  instead  of  an  abstract,  we  have  in  his  history  a  fiimiliar 
representation  of  such  worth,  and  piety,  and  excellence,  as, 
could  they  only  be  stamped  upon  our  own  persons,  and 
borne  along  with  us  to  the  place  where  he  now  dwelleth  — 
instead  of  being  shunned  as  aliens,  we  should  be  welcomed 
and  recognized  as  seemly  companions  for  the  inmates  of  that 
place  of  holiness.  And  in  truth  the  great  work  of  Christ's 
disciples  upon  earth  is  a  constant  and  busy  process  of  as- 
similation to  their  Master  who  is  in  heaven.  And  we  live 
under  a  special  economy,  that  has  been  set  up  for  the  ex- 
press purpose  of  helping  it  forward.  It  is  for  this  in  par- 
ticular that  the  Spirit  is  provided.  We  are  changed  into 
the  image  of  the  Lord,  even  hj  the  Spirit  of  the  Lox'd. 
Nursed  out  of  this  fulness,  we  grow  up  unto  the  stature  of 
perfect  men  in  Christ  Jesus, —  and.  instead  of  heaven  being 
a  remote  and  mysterious  unknown,  heaven  is  brought  near 
to  us  by  the  simple  expedient  of  inspiring  us  where  we  now 


262    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

stand,  with  its  love,  and  its  purity,  and  its  sacredness.  We 
learn  from  Christ  that  the  heavenly  graces  are  all  of  them 
compatible  with  the  wear  of  an  earthly  body,  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  an  earthly  habitation.  It  is  not  said  in  how 
many  of  its  features  the  new  earth  will  differ  from  or  be 
like  unto  the  present  one  —  but  we,  by  turning  from  our 
iniquities  unto  Christ,  push  forward  the  resemblance  of  the 
one  to  the  other,  in  the  only  feature  that  is  specified,  even 
that  "  therein  dwelleth  righteousness." 

And  had  we  only  the  character  of  heaven,  we  should 
not  be  long  of  feeling  what  that  is  which  essentially  makes 
the  comfort  of  heaven.  "  Thou  lovest  righteousness,  and 
liatest  iniquity ;  therefore,  God,  thy  God,  hath  anointed 
thee  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above  thy  fellows."  Let 
us  but  love  the  righteousness  which  he  loves,  and  hate 
the  iniquity  which  he  hateth,  and  this,  of  itself,  would 
so  soften  and  attune  the  mechanism  of  our  moral  nature, 
that  in  all  the  movements  of  it  there  should  be  joy.  It 
is  not  sufiiciently  adverted  to,  that  the  happiness  of  heaven 
lies  simply  and  essentially  in  the  well-going  machinery 
of  a  well-conditioned  soul  —  and  that,  according  to  its 
measure,  it  is  the  same  in  kind  with  the  happiness  of 
God,  who  liveth  forever  in  bliss  ineffable,  because  He  is 
unchangeable  in  being  good,  and  upright,  and  holy.  There 
may  bo  audible  music  in  heaven,  but  its  chief  delight 
will  be  in  the  music  of  wcU-poised  affections,  and  of 
principles  in  full  and  consenting  harmony  with  the  laws 
of  eternal  rectitude.  There  may  be  visions  of  loveli- 
ness there,  but  it  will  be  the  loveliness  of  virtue,  as  seen 
directly  in  God,  and  as  reflected  back  again  in  family 
likeness  from  all  his  children  —  it  will  be  this  that  shall 
give  its  purest  and  sweetest  transports  to  the  soul.  In  a 
Avord,  the  main  reward  of  paradise  is  spiritual  joy  —  and 
that,  springing  at  once  from  the  love  and  the  possession  of 
spiritual  excellence.  It  is  such  a  joy  as  sin  extinguishes 
on  the  moment  of  its  entering  the  soul ;  and  such  a  joy  as 
is  again  restored  to  the  soul,  and  that  immediately  on  its 
being  restored  to  righteousness. 

It  is  thus  that  heaven  may  be  established  upon  earth, 
and  the  petition  of  our  Lord's  prayer  be  fulfilled,  "  Thy 
kingdom  come."     This  petition  receives  its  best  explanation 


SERMON,    BY   DR.    CHALMERS.  263 

from  the  one  which  follows  :  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth 
as  it  is  done  in  heaven."  It  just  requires  a  similarity  of 
habit  and  character  in  the  two  places,  to  make  out  a  simi- 
larity of  enjoyment.  Let  us  attend,  then,  to  the  way  in 
Avhich  the  services  of  the  upper  sanctuary  are  rendered  — 
not  in  the  spirit  of  legality,  for  this  gendereth  to  bondage  ; 
but  in  the  spirit  of  love,  which  gendereth  to  the  beatitude 
of  the  affections  rejoicing  in  their  best  and  most  favorite  in- 
dulgence. Tlicy  do  not  work  there  for  the  purpose  of 
making  out  the  conditions  of  a  bargain.  They  do  not  act 
agreeably  to  the  pleasure  of  God,  in  order  to  obtain  the 
gratification  of  any  distinct  will  or  distinct  pleasure  of 
their  own,  in  return  for  it.  Their  will  is,  in  fiict,  identical 
with  the  will  of  God.  There  is  a  perfect  unison  of  taste 
and  of  inclination  between  the  creature  and  the  Creator. 
They  are  in  their  clement  when  they  are  feeling  righteously 
and  doing  righteously.  Obedience  is  not  drudgery,  but  de- 
light, to  them ;  and  as  much  as  there  is  of  the  congenial 
between  animal  nature,  and  the  food  that  is  suitable  to  it, 
so  much  is  there  of  the  congenial  between  the  moral  nature 
of  heaven  and  its  sacred  employments  and  services.  Let 
the  Avill  of  God  then  be  done  here  as  it  is  there,  and  not 
only  will  character  and  conduct  be  the  same  here  as  there, 
but  they  will  also  resemble  each  other  in  the  style,  though 
not  in  the  degree,  of  their  blessedness.  The  happiness  of 
heaven  will  be  exemplified  upon  earth,  along  with  the  vir- 
tue of  heaven  —  for,  in  truth,  the  main  ingredient  of  that 
happiness  is  not  given  them  in  payment  for  work  ;  but  it 
lies  in  the  love  they  bear  to  the  work  itself  A  man  is 
never  happier  than  when  employed  in  that  wliich  he  likes 
best.  This  is  all  a  question  of  taste ;  but  should  such  a 
taste  be  given  as  to  make  it  a  man"s  meat  and  drink  to  do 
the  will  of  his  Father,  then  is  he  in  perfect  readiness  for 
being  carried  upwards  to  heaven,  and  placed  beside  the 
pure  river  of  water  of  life,  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb.  This  is  the  way  in  which 
you  may  make  a  heaven  upon  earth, — not  by  heaping  your 
reluctant  ofiers  at  the  shrine  of  legality,  but  by  serving  God 
because  you  love  him ;  and  doing  his  will  because  you  de- 
light to  do  him  honor. 


264    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EAKTH. 

And  here  we  may  remark,  that  the  only  possible  convey- 
ance for  this  new  principle  into  the  heart,  is  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ,  —  that  in  no  other  way  than  through  the 
acceptance  of  its  free  pardon,  sealed  by  the  blood  of  an 
atonement,  which  exalts  the  Lawgiver,  can  the  soul  of  man 
be  both  emancipated  from  the  fear  of  terror,  and  solemnized 
into  the  fear  of  humble  and  holy  reverence, —  that  it  is  only 
in  conjunction  with  the  faith  which  justifies,  that  the  love 
of  gratitude  and  the  love  of  moral  esteem  are  made  to 
arise  in  the  bosom  of  regenerated  man ;  and,  therefore,  to 
bring  down  the  virtues  of  heaven,  as  well  as  the  peace 
of  heaven,  into  this  lower  world,  we  know  not  what  else 
can  be  done  than  to  urge  upon  you  the  great  propitiation 
of  the  New  Testament, —  nor  are  we  aware  of  any  expedi- 
ent by  which  all  the  cold  and  freezing  sensations  of  legality 
can  be  done  away,  but  by  your  thankful  and  unconditional 
acceptance  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  him  crucified. 


S  E  K  M  0  N . 

BY   THE   REV.    JOHN   WESLEY,  A.  M. 

"  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new."  —  Rev.  21  :  5. 

1.  What  a  strange  scene  is  here  opened  to  our  view ! 
How  remote  from  all  our  natural  apprehensions  !  Not  a 
glimpse  of  what  is  here  revealed  was  ever  seen  in  the 
heathen  world.  Not  only  the  modern  barbarous,  tincivil- 
ized  heathens  have  not  the  least  conception  of  it ;  but  it 
was  equally  unknown  to  the  refined,  polished  heathens  of 
ancient  Greece  and  Rome.  And  it  is  almost  as  little  thought 
of  or  understood  by  the  generality  of  Christians ;  I  mean, 
not  barely  those  that  are  nominally  such ;  that  have  the 
form  of  godliness  without  the  power  ;  but  even  those  that  in 
a  measure  fear  God,  and  study  to  work  righteousness. 

2.  It  must  be  allowed,  that,  after  all  the  researches  we 
can  make,  still   our  knowledge  of*  the  great  truth,  which  is 


SERMON,    BY    THE    REV.    JOHN    WESLEY,    A.    M.       2G5 

delivered  to  us  in  these  ^yords,  is  exceedingly  short  and  im- 
IDcrfect.  As  this  is  a  point  of  mere  revelation,  beyond  the 
reach  of  all  our  natural  faculties,  we  cannot  penetrate  far 
into  it,  nor  form  any  adequate  conception  of  it.  But  it  may 
be  an  encouragement  to  those  who  have,  in  any  degree, 
tasted  of  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  to  go  as  far  as 
they  can  go ;  interpreting  Scripture  by  Scripture,  according 
to  the  analogy  of  faith. 

3.  The  apostle,  caught  up  in  the  visions  of  God,  tells 
us,  in  the  first  verse  of  the  chapter,  "I  saw  a  new  heaven 
and  a  new  earth  ;  "  and  adds,  verse  5,  "  lie  tliat  sat  upon 
the  throne  said''  [I  believe  the  only  ^vords  which  he  is  said 
to  utter  throughout  the  whole  bookj,  ••Uehold,  I  make  all 
things  new." 

4.  Very  many  commentators  entertain  a  strange  opinion, 
that  this  relates  only  to  the  present  state  of  things ;  and 
gravely  tells  us,  that  the  words  arc  to  be  referred  to  the 
ilourisliing  state  of  the  church,  Avhich  commenced  after  the 
heathen  persecutions.  Nay,  some  of  them  have  discovered, 
that  all  which  the  apostle  speaks  concerning  the  "new 
heaven  and  the  new  earth''  was  fulfilled  when  Constantine 
the  Great  poured  in  riches  and  honors  upon  the  Christians. 
What  a  miserable  way  is  this  of  making  void  the  whole 
counsel  of  God,  with  regard  to  all  that  grand  chain  of 
events,  in  reference  to  his  church,  yea,  and  to  all  mankind, 
from  the  time  that  John  was  in  Patmos  unto  the  end  of 
the  world  !  Nay,  the  line  of  this  prophecy  reaches  further 
still :  it  docs  not  end  with  the  present  world,  but  shows  us 
the  things  that  Avill  come  to  pass  when  this  world  is  no 
more.     For 

5.  Thus  saith  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe : 
"  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new;  " — all  which  are  included 
in  that  expression  of  the  apostle:  "A  new  heaven  and  a  new 
earth."  A  new  heaven:  the  original  word  in  Gen^is,  chap. 
1.  is  in  the  plural  number:  and  indeed  this  is  the  constant 
language  of  Scripture  ;  not  licnvcn,  but  heavens.  Accord- 
ingly, the  ancient  Jewish  writers  arc  accustomed  to  reckon 
three  heavens  ;  in  conformity  to  which,  the  apostle  Paul 
speaks  of  his  being  caught  ''  up  into  the  third  heaven." 
It  is  this,  the  third  heaven,  which  is  usually  supposed  to  be 
the  more  immediate  residence  of  God ;  so  far  as  any  resi- 

23 


266    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

dence  can  be  ascribed  to  his  omnipresent  Spirit,  ^Yho  per- 
vades and  fills  the  whole  universe.  It  is  here  (if  we  speak 
after  the  manner  of  men),  that  the  Lord  sitteth  upon  his 
throne,  surrounded  by  angels  and  archangels,  and  by  all  his 
flaming  ministers. 

6.  We  cannot  think  that  this  heaven  will  undergo  any 
change,  any  more  than  its  great  Inhabitant.  Surely  this 
palace  of  the  Most  High  was  the  same  from  eternity,  and 
will  be,  -world  without  end.  Only  the  inferior  heavens  are 
liable  to  change ;  the  highest  of  which  we  usually  call  the 
starry  heavens.  This,  St.  Peter  informs  us,  "  is  reserved 
unto  fire,  against  the  day  of  judgment,  and  destruction  of 
ungodly  men."  In  that  day,  "being  on  fire,"  it  shall,  first, 
"shrivel  as  a  parchment  scroll;  "  then  it  "shall  be  dis- 
solved, and  shall  pass  away  with  a  great  noise ;  "  lastly,  it 
shall  "  flee  from  the  face  of  him  that  sitteth  on  the  throne, 
and  there  shall  be  found  no  place  for  it." 

7.  At  the  same  time,  "the  stars  shall  fall  from  heaven; " 
the  secret  chain  being  broken  which  had  retained  them  in 
their  several  orbits,  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.  In 
the  mean  while,  the  lower,  or  sublunary  heaven,  with  the 
elements  (or  principles  that  compose  it),  "shall  melt  with 
fervent  heat;  "  while  "the  earth,  with  the  works  that  are 
therein,  shall  be  burned  up."  This  is  the  introduction  to 
a  far  nobler  state  of  things,  such  as  it  has  not  yet  entered 
into  the  heart  of  man  to  conceive,  —  the  universal  restora- 
tion which  is  to  succeed  the  universal  destruction.  For 
"  we  look,"  says  the  apostle,  "  for  a  new  heavens  and  a  new 
earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness."   2  Peter  3  :  7,  &c. 

8.  One  considerable  difference  there  will  undoubtedly  be 
in  the  starry  heaven,  when  it  is  created  anew  :  there  will  be 
no  blazing  stars,  no  comets  there.  Whether  those  horrid, 
eccentric  orbs  are  half-formed  planets,  in  a  chaotic  state 
(I  speakr  on  the  supposition  of  a  plurality  of  worlds),  or 
such  as  have  undergone  their  general  conflagration,  they 
will  certainly  have  no  place  in  the  new  heaven,  where  all 
will  be  exact  order  and  harmony.  There  may  be  many 
other  differences  between  the  heaven  that  now  is,  and  that 
which  will  be  after  the  renovation.  But  they  are  above 
our  apprehension :  we  must  leave  eternity  to  explain 
them. 


SERMON,    BY   THE    REV.    JOHN    "SVESLEY,    A.  M.        267 

9.  We  may  more  easily  conceive  the  changes  which  will 
be  wrouglit  in  the  lower  heaven,  in  the  region  of  the  air.  It 
will  be  no  more  torn  by  hurricanes,  or  agitated  by  furious 
storms,  or  dostructive  tempests.  Pernicious  or  terrifying 
meteors  will  have  no  place  therein.  "We  shall  have  no  more 
occasion  to  say : 

"  There,  like  a  trumpet,  loud  aud  strong, 
Til  J  thunder  shakes  our  coast : 
While  the  red  li<;lituiugs  wave  along 
The  banners  of  thy  host  !  " 

No,  all  will  then  be  light,  fair,  serene ;  a  lively  picture 
of  the  eternal  day. 

10.  All  the  elements  (taking  that  word  in  the  common 
sense,  for  the  principles  of  which  all  natural  beings  are 
compounded)  will  be  now  indeed ;  entirely  changed  as 
to  their  tonalities,  although  not  as  to  their  nature.  Fire  is 
at  present  the  general  destroyer  of  all  things  under  the  sun; 
dissolving  all  things  that  come  within  the  sphere  of  its 
action,  and  reducing  them  to  their  primitive  atoms.  But 
no  sooner  will  it  have  performed  its  last  great  office  of  de- 
stroying the  heavens  and  the  earth  (wliether  3^ou  mean 
thereby,  one  system  only,  or  the  whole  fabric  of  the  uni- 
verse ;  the  difference  between  one  and  millions  of  worlds 
being  nothing  before  the  great  Creator) ;  when,  I  say,  it  has 
done  this,  the  destructions  wrought  by  fire  will  come  to  a 
perpetual  end.  It  will  destroy  no  more  :  it  will  consume 
no  more  :  it  will  forget  its  power  to  burn,  — which  it  pos- 
sesses only  during  the  present  state  of  tilings,  — and  be  as 
harmless,  in  the  new  heavens  and  earth,  as  it  is  now  in  the 
bodies  of  men  and  other  animals,  and  the  substance  of  trees 
and  flowers;  in  all  which  (as  late  experiments  show),  large 
quantities  of  ethereal  fire  are  lodged  ;  if  it  be  not  rather 
an  essential  component  part  of  every  material  being  under 
the  sun.  But  it  will,  probably,  retain  its  vivifying  power, 
thougli  divested  of  its  power  to  destroy. 

11.  It  has  been  already  observed,  that  the  calm,  placid 
air  will  be  no  more  disturbed  by  storms  and  tempests.  There 
will  be  no  more  meteors,  with  their  horrid  glare  affrighting 
the  poor  children  of  men.  May  we  not  add  (though  at 
first  it  may  sound  like  a  paradox),  that  there  will  be  no 
more  rain.     It  is  observable,  that  there  was  none  in  para- 


268    THE  NEW  HEAVEXS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 


dise;  a  circumstance  which  Moses  particularly  mentions, 
Gen.  2:  5,6;  "The  Lord  God  had  not  caused  it  to  rain 
upon  the  earth.  But  there  went  up  a  mist  from  the  earth," 
which  then  covered  up  the  abyss  of  waters,  "and  watered 
the  whole  face  of  the  ground  "  with  moisture  sufficient  for 
all  the  purposes  of  vegetation.  We  have  all  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  case  will  be  the  same  when  paradise  is  re- 
stored. Consequently  there  will  be  no  clouds  or  fogs,  but 
one  bright,  refulgent  day.  Much  less  will  there  be  any 
poisonous  damps  or  pestilential  blasts.  There  will  be  no 
sirocco  in  Italy ;  no  parching  or  suffocating  winds  in 
Arabia ;  no  keen  northeast  winds  in  our  own  country, 

"  Shattering  the  gi\aceful  locks  of  yon  fair  trees  ;  " 
but  only  pleasing,  beautiful  breezes, 

"  Fanning  the  earth  with  odoriferous  wings." 

12.  But  what  a  change  will  the  element  of  Avater  un- 
dergo, when  all  things  are  made  new !  It  will  be,  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  clear  and  limpid;  pure  from  all  un- 
pleasing  or  unhealthful  mixtures ;  rising  here  and  there  in 
crystal  fountains,  to  refresh  and  adorn  the  earth  • '  with 
liquid  lapse  of  murmuring  stream."  For  undoubtedly,  as 
there  were  in  paradise,  there  will  be  various  rivers  gently 
gliding  along,  for  the  use  and  pleasure  of  both  man  and 
beast.  But  the  inspired  writer  has  expressly  declared, 
"there  will  be  no  more  sea,"  Rev.  21:  1.  We  have  rea- 
son to  believe  that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  world,  when  God 
said,  ' '  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered  to- 
gether unto  one  place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear,"  Gen. 
1  :  9,  the  dry  land  spread  over  the  face  of  the  water,  and 
covered  it  on  every  side.  And  so  it  seems  to  have  done, 
till,  in  order  to  the  general  deluge,  which  God  had  deter- 
mined to  bring  upon  the  earth  at  once,  "  the  windows  of 
heaven  were  opened,  and  the  fountains  of  the  great  deep 
broken  up."  But  the  sea  vv'ill  then  retire  within  its  primi- 
tive bounds,  and  appear  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  no  more. 
Neither,  indeed,  will  there  be  any  more  need  of  the  sea. 
For  either,  as  the  ancient  poet  supposes, 

Omnis  feret  omnia  tellus  ; 

every  part  of  the  earth  will  naturally  produce  whatever 


SERMON,    BY   TUE   REV.    JOHN   WESLEY,    A.    M.      269 

its  inhabitants  want ;  or  all  mankind  will  procure  what  the 
whole  earth  affords,  by  a  much  easier  and  readier  convey- 
ance. For  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  our  Lord  in- 
foi'ms  us.  will  then  be  ifntyy^hu, —  equal  to  atif/els :  on  a 
level  with  them  in  swiftness,  as  well  as  strength ;  so  that 
they  can,  quick  as  thought,  transport  themselves,  or  what- 
ever they  want,  from  one  side  of  the  globe  to  the  other. 

13.  But  it  seems  a  greater  change  will  be  wrouglit  in  the 
earth,  than  even  in  the  air  and  water.  Not  that  I  can  be- 
lieve that  wonderful  discovery  of  Jacob  Behme.  which  many 
so  eagerly  contcml  for;  that  the  earth  itself,  with  all  its  fur- 
niture and  inhabitants,  will  then  be  transparent  as  glass. 
There  does  not  seem  to  be  the  least  foundation  for  this, 
either  in  Scripture  or  reason.  Surely  not  in  Scripture  :  I 
know  not  one  te.xt  in  the  Old  or  New  Testament  which 
affirms  any  such  thing.  Certainly  it  cannot  be  inferred  from 
that  text  in  Revelation,  4  :  G  ;  "  And  before  the  throne 
there  Avas  a  sea  of  glass,  like  unto  crystal."  And  yet,  if  I 
mistake  not,  this  is  the  chief,  if  not  the  only  Scripture, 
which  has  been  urged  in  favor  of  this  opinion  !  Neither  can 
I  conceive  that  it  has  any  foundation  in  reason.  It  has 
been  warmly  alleged,  that  all  things  would  be  far  more 
beautiful  if  they  were  quite  transparent.  But  I  cannot  ap- 
prehend this  :  yea,  I  apprehend  quite  the  contrary.  Sup- 
pose every  part  of  a  human  body  were  made  transparent  as 
crystal,  would  it  appear  more  beautiful  than  it  does  now? 
Nay,  rather,  it  would  shock  us  above  measure.  The  sur- 
face of  the  body,  in  particular,  '-'the  human  face  divine," 
is  undoubtedly  one  of  the  most  beautiful  objects  that  can  be 
found  under  heaven :  but  could  you  look  through  the  rosy 
check,  the  smooth,  fair  forehead,  or  the  rising  bosom,  and 
distinctly  see  all  that  lies  within,  you  would  turn  away  from 
it  with  loathing  and  horror  ! 

14.  Let  us  next  take  a  view  of  those  changes  which  we 
may  reasoua1)ly  suppose  will  then  take  place  in  the  earth. 
It  will  no  more  be  bound  up  with  intense  cold,  nor  parched 
up  with  extreme  heat ;  but  will  have  such  a  temperature  as 
will  be  most  conducive  to  its  fruitfulness.  If,  in  order  to 
punish  its  inhabitants,  God  did  of  old 

"Bid  his  angels  turn  askance 
Tliis  oblique  globe," 

23*    • 


270    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

thereby  occasioning  violent  cold  on  one  part  and  violent 
heat  on  the  other ;  he  Avill,  undoubtedly,  then  order  them 
to  restore  it  to  its  original  position;  so  that  there  will 
be  a  final  end,  on  the  one  hand,  of  the  burning  heat, 
which  makes  some  parts  of  it  scarce  habitable,  and  on  the 
other,  of 

"  The  rage  of  Arctos  and  eternal  frost." 

15.  And  it  will  then  contain  no  jarring  or  destructive 
principles  within  its  own  bosom.  It  will  no  more  have  any 
of  those  violent  convulsions  in  its  own  bowels.  It  will  no 
more  be  shaken  or  torn  asunder  by  the  impetuous  force  of 
earthquakes;  and  will,  therefore,  need  neither  Vesuvius 
nor  Etna  nor  any  burning  mountains  to  prevent  them. 
There  will  be  no  more  horrid  rocks,  or  frightful  precipices ; 
no  wild  deserts,  or  barren  sands;  no  impassable  morasses, 
or  unfruitful  bogs,  to  swallow  up  the  unwary  traveller. 
There  will,  doubtless,  be  inequalities  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth  ;  which  are  not  blemishes,  but  beauties.  And  though 
I  will  not  affirm  that 

"  Earth  hath  this  variety  from  heaven, 
Of  pleasure  situate  in  hill  and  dale  ;  " 

yet  I  cannot  think  gently-rising  hills  will  be  any  defect,  but 
an  ornament,  of  the  new  made  earth.  And  doubtless  we 
shall  then  likewise  have  occasion  to  say  : 

"  Lo,  there  his  wondi-ous  skill  arrays 
The  fields  in  cheerful  green  ! 
A  thousand  herbs  his  hand  displays, 
A  thousand  flowers  between  !  " 

16.  And  what  will  the  general  produce  of  the  earth  be? 
Not  thorns,  briars,  or  thistles;  not  any  useless  or  fetid 
weed  ;  not  any  poisonous,  hurtful,  or  unpleasant  plant ;  but 
every  one  that  can  be  conducive,  in  any  wise,  either  to  our 
use  or  pleasure.  How  far  beyond  all  that  the  most  lively 
imagination  is  now  able  to  conceive  !  We  shall  no  more  re- 
gret the  loss  of  the  terrestial  paradise,  or  sigh  at  that  well 
devised  descrij3tion  of  our  great  poet : 

"  Then  shall  this  mount 
Of  paradise,  by  might  of  waves,  be  moved 
Out  of  his  place,  push'd  by  the  horned  flood, 
With  all  its  verdui-e  spoil'd  and  trees  adrift, 
Down  the  great  river  to  the  opening  gulf. 
And  there  take  root,  an  island  salt  and  bare  !  " 


SERMON,    BY   THE   REV.    JOHN   WESLEY,    A.    M.      271 

For  all  the  earth  shall  be  a  more  beautiful   paradise  than 
Adam  ever  saw. 

17.  Such  will  be  the  state  of  the  new  earth  with  regard 
to  the  meaner,  the  inanimate  parts  of  it.  But,  groat  as  this 
change  will  be,  it  is  nothing  in  comparison  of  that  which 
will  then  take  place  throughout  all  animated  nature.  In 
the  living  part  of  the  creation  were  seen  tlie  most  deplorable 
effects  of  Adam's  apostasy.  The  whole  animated  creation, 
^vhatever  has  life,  from  leviathan  to  the  smallest  mite,  was 
thereby  made  subject  to  such  vanity  as  the  inanimate  crea- 
tures could  not  be.  They  were  subject  to  that  fell  monster, 
DEATH,  the  contjueror  of  all  that  breathe.  They  were  made 
subject  to  its  forerunner,  pain,  in  its  ten  thousand  forms  ; 
although  "God  made  not  death,  neither  hath  he  pleasure  in 
the  death  of  any  living."  How  many  millions  of  creatures 
in  the  sea,  in  the  air,  and  on  every  part  of  the  earth,  can 
now  no  otherwise  preserve  their  lives  than  by  taking  away 
the  lives  of  others ;  by  tearing  in  pieces  and  devouring  their 
poor,  innocent,  unresisting  fellow-creatures  !  Miserable  lot 
of  such  innumerable  multitudes,  who,  insignificant  as  they 
seem,  are  the  offspring  of  one  common  Father ;  the  creatures 
of  the  same  God  of  love  !  It  is  probable  not  only  two- 
thirds  of  the  animal  creation,  but  ninety-nine  parts  of  a 
hundred,  are  under  a  necessity  of  destroying  others  in  order 
to  preserve  their  own  life  !  But  it  shall  not  always  be  so. 
He  that  sitteth  upon  the  throne  will  soon  change  the  fiice  of 
all  things,  and  give  a  demonstrative  proof  to  all  his  crea- 
tures "that  his  mercy  is  over  all  his  works."  The  horrid 
state  of  things  which  at  present  obtains  irill  soon  bo  at  an 
end.  On  the  new  earth,  no  creature  will  kill,  or  hurt,  or 
give  pain  to  any  other.  The  scorpion  will  have  no  poison- 
ous sting,  the  adder  no  venomous  teeth.  The  lion  will 
have  no  claws  to  tear  the  lamb,  ne  teeth  to  grind  his  flesh 
and  bones.  Nay,  no  creature,  no  beast,  bird,  or  fish  will 
have  any  inclination  to  hurt  any  other ;  for  cruelty  will  be 
far  away,  and  suvageness  and  fierceness  be  forgotten.  So 
that  violence  shall  be  heard  no  more,  neither  wasting  nor 
destruction  seen  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  "  The  Avolf  shall 
dwell  with  the  lamb"  (the  words  may  be  literally  as  well 
as  figuratively  understood),  "and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down 


272    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

with  the  kid :  they  shall  not  hurt  or  destroy,"  from  the 
rising  up  of  the  sun  to  the  going  down  of  the  same. 

18.  But  the  most  glorious  of  all  Avill  be,  the  change 
■which  then  will  take  place  on  the  poor,  sinful,  miserable 
children  of  men.  These  had  fallen,  in  many  respects,  as 
from  a  greater  height  so  into  a  lower  depth,  than  any  other 
part  of  the  creation.  But  they  shall  "  hear  a  great  voice 
out  of  heaven,  saying,  Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is 
with  men  :  and  he  will  dwell  with  them ;  and  they  shall  be 
his  people;  and  God  himself  shall  be  their  God,"  Rev.  21: 
3,  4.  Hence  will  arise  an  unmixed  state  of  holiness  and 
happiness,  far  superior  to  that  Avhich  Adam  enjoyed  in  par- 
adise. In  how  beautiful  a  manner  is  this  described  by  the 
apostle  :  "  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears  from  their  eyes; 
and  there  shall  be  no  more  death,  neither  sorrow  nor  crying ; 
neither  shall  there  be  any  more  pain  ;  for  the  former  things 
are  done  away."  As  there  will  be  no  more  death,  and  no 
more  pain  or  sickness  preparatory  thereto ;  as  there  will  be 
no  more  grieving  for  or  parting  with  friends ;  so  there  will 
be  no  more  sorrow  or  crying.  Nay,  but  there  will  be  a 
greater  deliverance  than  all  this,  for  there  will  be  no  more  sin. 
And,  to  crown  all,  there  will  be  a  deep,  an  intimate,  an  un- 
interrupted union  Avith  God ;  a  constant  communion  with 
the  Father  and  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,  through  the  Spirit ; 
a  continual  enjoyment  of  the  Three-One  God,  and  of  all 
the  creatures  in  him  ! 


THE  FUTURE   CONDITION  AND  DESTINY 
OF  THE  EARTH. 

BY    EDWARD    HITCHCOCK,  D.D.,  LL.  D. 

Man  has  a  stronger  desire  to  penetrate  the  future  than 
the  past.  And  yet  the  details  of  most  future  events  are 
wisely  concealed  from  him.  There  are  two,  and  only  two, 
sources  of  evidence  from  which  he  can  obtain  some  glimpses 


VIEWS    OF   DR.    EDWARD    IIITCnCOCK.  273 


of  what  will  be  hereafter.  The  one  is  revelation,  the  other 
analogy.  So  far  as  God  has  thought  proper  to  reveal  the 
futures  our  information  is  precise  and  certain.  But  it  does 
not  embrace  a  multitude  of  events  about  which  we  have 
strong  curiosity.  By  analogy  is  meant  a  prediction  of  the 
future  from  the  past.  On  the  principle  that  nature  is  con- 
stant, we  infer  what  will  be  from  what  hiis  been.  If,  how- 
ever, new  laws  are  hereafter  to  come  into  operation,  or  if 
present  agencies  will  then  operate  very  diffci-cntly  from  what 
they  now  do,  it  is  obviou%  that  analogy  can  be  only  an  im- 
perfect guide.  Still,  in  respect  to  n)any  important  events, 
its  conclusions  are  infallible.  Judging,  for  instance,  from 
the  past,  we  are  absolutely  certain  that  no  living  thing  will 
escape  the  great  law  of  dissolution,  which,  thus  far,  apart 
from  the  few  exceptions  made  known  to  us  by  revelation, 
Las  been  universal. 

The  future  changes  in  the  condition  of  the  earth,  as  they 
are  taught  us  by  revelation  and  analogy,  or,  rather,  by 
geology,  will  form  the  subject  of  my  present  lecture.  And 
my  first  ol)ject  will  be,  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  precisely 
what  the  Bible  teaches  us  concerning  these  changes. 

We  find  in  the  Scriptures  several  descriptions,  more  or 
less  definite,  of  the  changes  which  this  globe  will  hereafter 
undergo.  Some  of  them,  however,  are  couched  in  the 
figurative  language  of  prophecy,  and  others  are  incidental 
allusions :  and  concerning  the  precise  meaning  of  such 
descriptions,  there  will,  of  course,  be  a  diversity  of  opinion. 

There  are,  however,  some  passages  on  this  subject  as 
literal  and  as  precise  in  their  meaning  as  language  can  be. 
Now,  it  is  one  of  the  rules  for  interpreting  language,  that, 
where  a  work  contains  several  accounts  of  the  same  event, 
the  description  which  is  most  simple  and  literal  ought  to  be 
made  the  index  for  obtaining  the  meaning  of  those  passages 
which  are  figurative,  or,  on  any  account,  o1)5cure.  1  shall, 
therefore,  select  the  passage  of  Scripture  which  all  acknowl- 
edge to  be  most  plain  and  definite,  respecting  the  future 
destruction  of  the  earth,  and  the  new  heavens  and  earth  that 
are  to  succeed,  and  first  inquire  into  its  precise  meaning ; 
after  which,  we  shall  be  better  prepared  to  ascertain  what 
modification  of  that  meaning  other  passages  of  sacred  writ 
demand. 


I 


274    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

It  needs  but  a  cursory  examination  of  the  Bible  to  con- 
vince any  one  that  the  description  in  the  Second  Epistle  of 
Peter,  of  the  future  destruction  and  renovation  of  the  earth 
and  heavens,  is  eminently  the  passage  first  to  be  examined, 
because  the  fullest  and  clearest  on  this  subject.  It  is  the 
apostle's  object  directly  and  literally  to  describe  these  great 
changes,  apart  from  all  embellishments  of  language. 

There  shall  come,  says  he.  in  the  last  days,  scoffers, 
walking  after  their  own  lusts,  and  sayiufj,  Where  is  the 
jjromise  of  his  coming  ?  for  since  tlte  fathers  fell  asleep, 
all  things  contimie  as  they  loere  from  the  beginning  of 
the  creation.  For  this  they  willingly  are  ignorant  of, 
that  by  the  word  of  God  the  heavens  icere  of  old,  and 
the  earth  standing  out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water  ; 
whereby  the  world  that  then  was,  being  overfloiced  with 
water,  2jerished.  But  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  which 
are  now,  by  the  same  word  are  kept  in  store,  reserved 
unto  fire,  against  the  day  of  jndgincnt  and  jterdition  of 
ungodly  men.  But,  beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one 
thing,  tJtat  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years, 
and  a  tlionsand  years  as  one  day.  The  Lord  is  not 
slack  concerning  his  jiromise,  as  some  men  count  slack- 
ness, but  is  long  suffering  to  us-ward,  not  icilling  that 
any  sliould  perish,  but  tliat  all  should  come  to  repentance. 
But  the  day  of  the  Lord  ivill  come  as  a  thief  in  the 
night,  in  the  which  the  h,eavens  shall  pass  arcay  loith  a 
great  noise,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  ruith  fervent  heat; 
the  earth,  also,  and  the  icorks  that  are  therein,  shall  be 
burned  up.  treeing,  then,  that  all  these  things  shcdl  be 
dissolved,  ivhat  manner  of  persons  ought  ye  to  be,  in  all 
holy  conversation  and  godliness  ?  Looking  for  and 
hasting  unto  tlte  coming  of  the  day  of  God,  tcherein 
the  heavens,  being  on  fire,  shall  be  dissolved,  and  tlie  ele- 
ments shall  melt  with  fervent  heat.  Nevertheless,  we, 
according  to  his  promise,  look  for  new  heavens  and  a 
neiv  earth,  loherein  dwelleth  righteousness. 

It  would  require  too  much  time,  and,  moreover,  is  not 
necessary  to  the  object  I  have  in  view,  to  enter  into  minute 
verbal  criticism  upon  this  passage.  I  will  only  remark  that 
the  phrase  translated  the  earth  and  the  icorks  that  are 
therein,  might  with  equal  propriety  be  rendered  '-the earth 


VIEWS    OF   DR.    EDWARD    HITCHCOCK.  275 

and  the  works  that  are  thereon;  "  and  jet  the  difference  of 
meaning  betweocn  the  two  modes  of  expression  is  of  no  great 
iniportnnce.  Again,  by  the  term  heavens,  in  this  passage,  we 
are  evidently  to  nnderstand  the  atmosphere,  or  region  imme- 
diately surrounding  the  earth ;  as  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gene- 
sis, Aviiere  he  said  that  God  called  the  firmament  heavens; 
the  plural  form  being  used  in  the  Hebrew,  though  not  in 
the  English  translation. 

What,  now,  by  a  fair  exegesis,  is  taught  in  this  passage 
concerning  the  destruction  and  renovation  of  the  world? 
The  following  train  of  remark  may  conduct  us  to  the  true 
answer  to  this  inc^uiry  : 

In  the  first  place,  this  passngc  is  to  be  understood  literally. 
It  would  seem  as  if  it  could  hardly  be  necessary  to  present 
any  formal  proof  of  this  position  to  any  person  of  common 
sense,  who  had  read  the  passage.  But  the  fact  is,  that  men 
of  no  mean  re[tutation  as  commentators  have  maintained 
that  the  whole  of  it  is  only  a  vivid  figurative  prophecy  of 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.  Others  suppose  the  new 
heavens  and  new  earth  here  described  to  e.xist  before  the 
conllagration  of  tlie  world.  But  these  new  heavens  and 
earth  are  represented  as  the  residence  of  the  righteous,  after 
the  burning  and  melting  of  the  earth,  which,  according  to 
other  parts  of  Scripture,  is  to  take  place  at  the  end  of  the 
world,  or  at  the  general  judgment.  How  strange  that,  in 
order  to  sustain  a  favorite  theory,  able  men  shoukl  thus  in- 
vert the  obvious  order  of  these  great  events,  so  ^clearly 
described  in  the  Bible !  Still  more  absurd  is  it  to  attempt 
to  fasten  a  figurative  character  upon  this  most  simple  state- 
ment of  ins})iration.  It  is,  indeed,  true,  that  the  prophets 
have  sometimes  set  forth  great  political  and  moral  changes, 
the  downfall  of  empires,  or  of  distinguished  men,  by  the 
destruction  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  the  growing 
pale  and  darkening  of  the  sun  and  moon.  But  in  all  these 
cases  the  figurative  character  of  the  description  is  most 
obvious  ;  while  in  the  passage  from  Peter  its  literal  charac- 
ter is  equally  obvious.  Take,  for  example,  this  statement : 
Bij  the  word  of  God  the  heavens  V'ere  of  old,  and  the 
earth,  standing  out  of  the  water  and  in  the  water; 
trhcrehy  the  world  that  then  was,  being  overflowed  with 
water,  pc?-ished.     But  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  which 


276    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

are  noni,  by  the  same  word  are  kept  in  store,  reserved 
unto  fire,  agnuist  the  day  of  judgment  and  lierdition  of 
ungodly  men. 

I  believe  no  one  has  ever  doulrtecl  that  the  destruction  of 
the  world  by  water,  here  described,  refers  to  Noah's  deluge. 
Now,  how  absurd  to  admit  that  this  is  a  literal  description 
of  that  event,  and  then  to  maintain  the  remainder  of  the 
sentence,  which  declares  the  future  destruction  of  that  same 
world  by  fire,  to  be  figurative  in  the  highest  degree  !  For 
if  this  destruction  mean  only  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
or  any  other  great  political  or  moral  revolution,  the  language 
is  one  of  the  boldest  fi.gures  which  can  be  framed.  Who, 
that  knows  anything  of  the  laws  of  language,  does  not  see 
the  supreme  absurdity  of  thus  coupling  in  the  same  sen- 
tence the  most  simple  and  certain  literality  with  the  strong- 
est of  all  figures  ?  What  mark  is  given  us,  by  which  we 
may  know  where  the  boundary  is  between  the  literal  and 
the  metaphorical  sense  ?  From  what  part  of  the  Bible,  or 
from  what  uninspired  author,  can  a  parallel  example  be 
adduced  ?  What  but  the  strongest  necessity,  the  most  de- 
cided exlgeniia  loci,  would  justify  such  an  anomalous  inter- 
pretation of  any  author  ?  Nay,  I  do  not  believe  any  neces- 
sity could  justify  it.  It  would  be  more  reasonable  to  infer 
that  the  passage  had  no  meaning,  or  an  absurd  one.  But 
surely  no  such  necessity  exists  in  the  present  case.  Under- 
stood literally,  the  passage  teaches  only  what  is  often  ex- 
pressed, though  less  fully,  in  many  other  parts  of  Scrip- 
ture ;  and,  even  though  some  of  these  other  passages  should 
be  involved  in  a  degree  of  obscurity, — and  I  am  not  dis- 
posed to  deny  that  some  obscurity  rests  upon  one  or  two  of 
them, — it  would  be  no  good  reason  for  transforming  so  plain 
a  description  into  a  highly-wrought  figurative  representa- 
tion ;  especially  when  by  no  ingenuity  can  we  thus  alter 
more  than  one  part  of  the  sentence.  I  conclude,  therefore, 
that,  if  any  part  of  the  Bible  is  literal,  we  are  thus  to  con- 
sider this  chapter  of  Peter. 

In  the  second  place,  this  passage  does  not  teach  that  the 
earth  will  be  annihilated. 

The  prevailing  opinion  in  this  country,  probably,  has 
been,  and  still  is,  that  the  destruction  of  the  world  described 
by  Peter  will  amount  to  annihilation,  —  that  the  matter  of 


VIEWS    OP    DR.    EDWARD    IIITCnCOCK.  277 

the  globe  will  cease  to  be.  But,  in  all  ages,  there  have  been 
many  who  believe  that  the  destruction  \vill  be  only  the  ruin 
of  the  present  economy  of  the  world,  but  not  its  utter  ex- 
tinction. And  surely  Peter's  description  does  not  inii)]y 
annihilation  of  the  matter  of  the  globe.  He  makes  fire  the 
agent  of  the  destruction,  and,  in  order  to  ascertain  the  ex- 
tent of  the  ruin  that  will  follow,  we  have  only  to  inquire 
what  effect  combustion  Avill  have  upon  matter.  The  common 
opinion  is,  that  intense  combustion  actually  destroys  or 
annihilates  matter,  because  it  is  thereby  dissipated.  But 
the  chemist  knows  that  not  one  particle  of  matter  has  ever 
been  thus  deprived  of  existence;  the  fire  only  changes  the 
form  of  matter,  but  never  annihilates  it.  When  solid  mat- 
ter is  changed  into  gas,  as  in  most  cases  of  combustion,  it 
seems  to  be  annihilated,  because  it  disappears  ;  but  it  has 
only  assumed  a  new  form,  and  exists  as  really  as  before. 
Since,  therefore,  biblical  and  scientific  truth  must  agree,  we 
may  be  sure  that  the  apostle  never  meant  to  teach  that  the 
matter  of  the  globe  would  cease  to  be,  through  the  action  of 
fire  upon  it ;  nor  is  there  anything  in  his  language  that  im- 
plies such  a  result,  but  most  obviously  the  reverse. 

If  these  things  be  so,  then,  in  the  third  place,  we  may 
infer  that  Peter  did  not  mean  to  teach  that  the  matter  of 
the  globe  would  be  in  the  least  diminislied  by  the  final 
conflagration.  I  doubt  not  the  sufficiency  of  divine  power 
partially  or  wholly  to  annihilate  the  material  universe.  But 
beat,  however  intense,  has  no  tendency  to  do  this ;  it  only 
gives  matter  a  new  form.  And  heat  is  the  only  agency  which 
the  apostle  represents  as  employed.  In  short,  we  have  no 
evidence,  either  from  science  or  revelation,  that  the  minut- 
est atom  of  matter  has  ever  been  destroyed  since  the  origi- 
nal creation  ;  nor  have  we  any  iiiore  evidence  that  any  of  it 
ever  will  be  reduced  to  the  uothingucss  from  Avliich  it  sprang. 
The  prevalent  ideas  upon  this  subject  all  result  from  errone- 
ous notions  of  the  eftect  of  intense  heat. 

In  the  fourth  place,  the  passage  under  consideration  teaches 
us  that  whatever  upon  or  within  the  earth  is  capable  of  com- 
bustion will  undergo  that  change,  and  that  the  entire  globe 
will  be  melted. 

The  language  of  Peter  has  always  seemed  to  me  extreme- 
ly interesting.  He  says  that  the  heavens  [or  atmosphere] 
24 


278    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

vjUI  pass  away  with  a  great  7ioise,  and  the  elements  shall 
melt  w'tth  fervent  heat ;  the  earthy  also,  and  the  toorks 
that  are  therein,  shall  be  burned  iq) ;  looking  for  and 
hastening  unto  the  coining  of  the  day  of  God,  ivherein 
the  heavens,  being  on  fire,  shall  be  dissolved,  and  the  de- 
ments shall  melt  witJt  fervent  heat. 

This  language  approaches  nearer  to  an  anticipation  of  the 
scientific  discoveries  of  modern  times  than  any  other  part  of 
Scripture.  And  yet,  at  the  time  it  was  written,  it  would 
not  have  enabled  any  one  to  understand  the  chemistry  of 
the  great  changes  which  it  describes.  But,  now  that  their 
chemistry  is  understood,  we  perceive  that  the  language  is 
adapted  to  it,  in  a  manner  which  no  uninspired  writer  would 
have  done.  The  atmosphere  is  represented  as  passing  away 
■with  a  great  noise,  —  an  effect  which  the  chemist  would  pre- 
dict by  the  union  of  its  oxygen  with  the  hydrogen  and  other 
gases  liberated  by  the  intense  heat.  Yet  what  uninspired 
Avriter  of  the  first  century  would  have  imagined  such  a 
result  ? 

Again,  when  we  consider  the  notions  which  then  prevailed, 
and  which  arc  still  widely  diifused,  why  should  the  apostle 
add  to  the  simple  statement  that  the  earth  would  be  burnt 
up,  the  declaration  that  its  elements  would  be  melted  ?  For 
the  impression  was,  that  the  combustion  would  entirely 
destroy  the  matter  of  the  globe.  But  the  chemist  finds  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  earth  has  already  been  oxidized,  or 
burnt,  and  on  this  matter  the  only  effect  of  the  heat,  unless 
intense  enough  to  dissipate  it,  would  be  to  melt  it.  If, 
therefore,  the  apostle  had  said  only  that  the  world  would  be 
burnt  up,  the  sceptical  chemist  Avould  have  inferred  that  he 
had  made  a  mistake  through  ignorance  of  chemistry.  But 
he  cannot  now  draw  such  an  inference;  for  the  apostle's  lan- 
guage clearly  implies  that  only  the  combustible  matter  of 
the  globe  will  be  burnt,  while  the  elements,  or  first  princi- 
ples of  things,  will  be  melted ;  so  that  the  final  result  will 
be  an  entire  liquid,  fiery  globe.  Such  a  Vv'onderful  adapta- 
tion of  his  description  to  modern  science  could  not  surely 
have  resulted  from  human  sagacity,  but  must  be  the  fruit  of 
divine  inspiration. 

And  this  adaptation  is  the  more  wonderful  when  we  find 
it  running;  through  the  whole  Bible  wherever  the  sacred 


VIEWS   OF   DR.    EDWARD    HITCHCOCK.  279 

writers  come  in  contact  with  scientific  subjects.  In  this  re- 
spect, the  Bible  differs  from  every  other  system  of  religion 
professedly  from  heaven. 

Whenever  other  systems  have  treated  of  the  works  of 
nature,  they  have  sanctioned  some  error,  and  thus  put  into 
the  hands  of  modern  science  the  means  of  detecting  the  im- 
posture. Tiie  Vedas  of  India  adopt  the  absurd  notions  of 
an  ignorant  and  polytheistic  age  respecting  astronomy,  and 
the  Koran  adopts  as  infallilde  truth  the  absurdities  of  the 
Ptolemaic  system.  But  hitherto  the  Bible  has  never  been 
proved  to  come  into  collision  with  any  scientific  discovery, 
althouL^h  many  of  its  books  were  written  in  the  rudest  and 
most  ignorant  ages.  It  does  not.  indeed,  anticipate  scien- 
tific discovery.  I3ut  the  remarkable  adaptation  of  its  lan- 
guage to  such  discoveries,  when  they  are  made,  seems  to  me 
a  more  striking  mark  of  its  divine  origin  than  if  it  had  con- 
tained a  revelation  of  the  whole  system  of  modern  science. 

Ill  tlie  fifth  place,  the  passage  under  con.sideration  teaches 
that  this  earth  will  be  renovated  by  the  final  conflagration, 
and  become  the  abode  of  the  righteous.  After  describing 
the  day  of  God.  icherc'ui  the  heavens,  beiiifj  on  fire,  shall 
be  dissolved,  and  the  elements  shall  melt  with  fervent 
heat,  Peter  adds.  Nevertheless,  we,  according  to  his  prom- 
ise, look  for  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein, 
dwellcth  rifjhtcousness.  Now,  the  apostle  does  not  here, 
in  so  man}'  words,  declare  that  the  new  heavens  and  earth 
will  be  the  present  world  and  its  atmosphere,  purified  and 
renovated  l)y  fire.  But  it  is  certainly  a  natural  inference 
that  such  was  iiis  meaning.  For  if  he  intended  some  other 
remote  and  quite  different  place,  why  should  he  call  it  earth, 
and,  especially,  why  should  he  surround  it  with  an  atmos- 
phere ?  The  natural  and  most  obvious  meaning  of  the  passage 
surely  is.  that  the  fntnrc  residence  of  the  righteous  will  he 
this  present  tcrrar/ncons  globe,  after  its  entire  organic  and 
combustible  matter  shall  have  been  destroyed,  and  its  whole 
mass  reduced  by  heat  to  a  liquid  state,  and  then  a  new 
economy  reared  up  on  its  surfiice,  not  adapted  to  sinful,  but 
to  sinless  beings,  and,  therefore,  quite  different  from  its 
present  condition , —  probably  more  perfect,  but  still  the  same 
earth  and  surrounding  heavens. 

There  are,  indeed,  some  difficulties  in  the  way  of  such  a 


280    THE  NEAV  HEAVENS  AND  TUE  NEW  EARTH. 

meaning  to  this  passage,  and  objections  to  a  material  heaven ; 
and  these  I  shall  notice  in  the  propei'  place.  But  I  have 
given  what  seems  to  me  the  natural  and  obvious  meaning  of 
the  passage. 

Such,  as  I  conceive,  are  the  fair  inferences  from  the 
apostle's  description  of  the  end  of  the  world.  Let  us  no\y 
inquire  whether  any  other  passages  of  Scripture  require  us 
to  modify  this  meaning. 

The  idea  of  a  future  destruction  of  the  world  by  fire  is 
recognized  in  various  places,  both  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments.  Christ  speaks  more  than  once  of  heaven  and 
earth  as  passing  away.  Paul  speaks  of  Christ  as  descend- 
ing, at  the  end  of  the  world,  in  flaming  fire.  And  the 
Psalmist  describes  the  destruction  of  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  as  a  renovation.  Tlicy  shall  perish,  says  he,  but 
thou  [God]  shall  endure ;  yea,  all  of  them  shall  vax  old 
like  a  garment,  and  as  a  vesture  shall  thou  change  tJiern, 
and  they  shall  be  changed.  In  Revelation,  after  the 
apostle  had  given  a  vivid  description  of  the  final  judgment 
and  its  retributions,  he  says.  And  I  saro  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth ;  for  the  first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  icere 
jyassed  cucay,  and  tliere  ivas  no  more  sea.  lie  then  pro- 
ceeds to  give  a  minute  and  glowing  description  of  what  he 
calls  the  New  Jerusalem,  coming  down  from  God,  out  of 
heaven.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  understand  the  whole  of 
this  description  as  literally  true.  We  must  rather  regard  it 
as  a  figurative  representation  of  the  heavenly  state.  And 
hence  the  first  verse  which  speaks  of  the  new  heavens  and 
the  new  earth,  in  almost  the  same  language  which  Peter 
uses,  may  he.  also  figurative,  indicating  merely  a  more  ex- 
alted condition  than  the  present  world.  Hence,  I  would  not 
use  this  passage  to  sustain  the  interpretation  given  of  the 
literal  description  by  Peter.  And  yet  it  is  by  no  means 
injprobable  that  the  figurative  language  of  John  may  have 
for  its  basis  the  same  truths  which  are  taught  by  Peter. 
Nor  ought  we  to  infer,  because  a  figure  is  built  upon  that 
basis  in  the  apocalyptic  vision,  that  the  simple  statements  of 
Peter  are  metaphorical. 

In  the  passage  quoted  from  Peter,  it  is  said.  Nevertheless, 
ice,  according  to  his  'promise,  look  for  neiv  heavens  and  a 
neiv  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.     Most  writers 


VIEWS    OF   DR.    EDWARD    IIITCUCOCK.  281 


have  supposed  the  apostle  to  refer  either  to  the  promise 
made  to  Abraham,  that  his  seed  should  inherit  the  land,  or 
to  a  prophecy  in  Isaiah,  which  says :  Bihohl,  I  create  new 
heavens,  and  a  new  eurt/i,  and  the  former  shall  not  be 
remembered,  or  come  into  mind.  Bnt  be  you  (jlad  and 
rejoice  forever  in  that  which  I  create  ;  for  behold,  I  cre- 
ate Jerusalem  a  rcjoicinrj,  and  her  2)cople  a  joy.  And  I 
will  rejoice  in  Jerusalem,  and  joy  in  my  people  ;  and  the 
voice  of  weeping  shall  be  no  more  heard  in  her,  nor  the 
voice  of  crying.  There  shall  be  ^lo  more  thence  an  in- 
fant of  days,  nor  an  old  man  that  hath  not  filled  his 
days  ;  for  the  child  shall  die  a  hundred  years  old ;  but 
the  sinner,  beinfj  a  liundrcd  years  old.  shall  be  accursed. 
And  they  shall  build  houses,  (tnd  i/ihabit  them  ;  and  they 
shall  plant  vineyards,  and  cat  the  fruit  oj'  them.  They 
shall  not  build,  and  another  inhabit ;  they  shall  not  plant, 
and  another  eat ;  for  as  the  days  of  a  tree  are  the  days 
of  my  people,  and  mine  elect  shtdl  long  enjoy  the  works 
of  their  hands.  The  wolf  and  the  lamb  shall  feed  to- 
gether, and  the  lion  shall  eat  straw  like  the  bullock  ;  and 
dust  shall  be  the  serpent's  meat.  They  shall  not  hurt 
nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  niou/itain,  saith  the  Lord. 

Now,  it  seems  higlily  probable  that  the  new  heavens  and 
earth,  here  described,  represent  a  state  of  things  on  the 
present  earth  before  the  day  of  judgment,  and  not  a  heavenly 
and  immortal  state ;  for  sin  and  death  are  spoken  of  as  exist- 
ing in  it;  both  which,  we  are  assured,  will  be  excluded  from 
heaven.  Hence  able  biblical  writers  refer  this  prophecy  to 
the  millennial  state,  or  the  period  when  there  will  be  a  gen- 
eral prevalence  of  Christianity.  In  this  they  are  probably 
correct.  But  some  of  these  writers,  as  Low  and  Whitby, 
j)roceed  a  step  further,  and  infer  that  Peter's  description  of 
Uie  new  heavens  and  new  earth  belongs  also  to  the  millennial 
period :  first,  because  they  presume  that  the  apostle  referred 
to  this  promise  in  Isaiah ;  and  secondly,  because  he  uses  the 
same  terms,  namely,  "  new  heavens  and  new  earth.'"  But 
arc  these  grounds  sufficient  to  justify  so  important  a  conclu- 
sion? How  common  it  is  to  find  the  same  words  and 
phrases  in  the  l^ible  applied  by  different  writers  to  different 
subjects,  especiallj'  by  the  prophets  !  Even  if  we  can  sup- 
pose Peter  to  place  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  be- 
24* 


282    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEAV  EARTH. 

fore  the  judgment,  in  despite  of  his  plain  dechiration  to  the 
contrary,  yet  there  are  few  ^Yho  will  doubt  that  the  new 
heavens  and  earth  described  in  revelation  are  subsequent  to 
the  judgment  day,  so  vividly  described  in  the  verses  imme- 
diately preceding. 

And  as  to  the  promise  referred  to  by  Peter,  if  he  really 
describes  the  heavenly  state,  surely  it  may  be  found  in  a 
multitude  of  places ;  wherever,  indeed,  immortal  life  and 
blessedness  are  offered  to  faith  and  obedience.  Isaiah, 
therefore,  may  be  giving  a  figurative  description  of  a  glori- 
ous state  of  the  church  in  this  world,  under  the  terms  "  new 
heavens  and  new  earth,"  emblematical  of  those  real  new 
heavens  and  new  earth  beyond  the  grave,  described  by  Peter. 
And  hence,  it  seems  to  me,  the  language  of  the  prophet 
should  not  be  allowed  to  set  aside,  or  modify,  the  plain 
meaning  of  the  apostle. 

I  shall  quote  only  one  other  passage  of  the  Bible  on  this 
subject.  I  refer  to  that  difficult  text  in  Romans  which 
represents  the  whole  creation  as  groaning  and  travailing  to- 
gether in  pain  until  now ;  and  that  it  will  be  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
children  of  God. 

I  have  stated,  in  a  former  lecture,  that  Tholuck,  the  dis- 
tinguished German  theologian,  considers  this  a  description 
of  the  present  bound  and  fettered  condition  of  all  nature, 
and  that  the  deliverance  refers  to  the  future  renovation  of 
the  earth.  Such  an  exposition  chimes  in  perfectly  with  the 
views  on  this  subject  which  have  long  and  extensively  pre- 
vailed in  Germany.  And  it  certainly  does  give  a  consist- 
ent meaning  to  a  passage  which  has  been  to  commentators  a 
perfect  labyrinth  of  difficulties.  If  this  be  not  its  meaning, 
then  I  may  safely  say  that  its  meaning  has  not  yet  been 
found  out. 

In  view,  then,  of  all  the  important  passages  of  Scripture 
concerning  the  future  destruction  and  renovation  of  the 
earth,  I  think  Ave  may  ftiirly  conclude  that  none  of  them 
require  us  to  modify  the  natural  and  obvious  meaning  of 
Peter  which  has  been  given.  In  general,  they  all  coincide 
with  the  views  presented  by  that  apostle ;  or  if,  in  any  case, 
there  is  a  slight  apparent  difference,  the  figurative  character 
of  all  other  statements  besides  his  require  us  to  receive  his 


VIEWS    OF    DR.    EDWARD    HITCUCOCK.  283 

views  as  the  true  standard,  and  to  modify  the  meaning  of 
the  others.  We  may,  therefore,  conclude  that  the  Bible 
does  plainly  and  distinctly  teach  us  that  this  earth  will 
hereafter  be  burned  up ;  in  other  words,  that  all  upon  or 
within  it.  capable  of  combustion,  will  be  consumed,  and  the 
entire  mass,  the  elements,  without  the  loss  of  one  particle 
of  the  matter  now  existing;,  will  be  melted  ;  and  then,  that 
iJm  \rorld^  f/ius:  piirijicd  from  the  vontdininntion  of  sin, 
and  surrounded  by  a  )fcu-  atmosphere,  or  heavens,  and 
adapted  in  all  respects  to  the  nature  and  wants  of  spirit- 
ual and  sinless  beinys,  will  become  the  ?'esidence  of  the 
righteous.  Of  the  precise  nature  of  that  new  dispensation, 
and  of  the  mode  of  existence  there,  the  Scriptures  are  in- 
deed silent.  But  that,  like  the  present  world,  it  will  be 
material,  —  that  there  will  be  a  solid  globe,  and  a  transparent 
expanse  around  it,  —  seems  most  clearly  indicated  in  the 
sacred  record. 

The  wide-spread  opinion  that  heaven  will  be  a  sort  of 
airy  Elysium,  where  the  present  laws  of  nature  will  be  un- 
known, and  where  matter,  if  it  exist,  can  exist  only  in  its 
most  attenuated  form,  is  a  notion  to  which  the  Bible  is  a 
stranger. 

The  resurrection  of  the  body,  as  well  as  the  language  of 
Peter,  most  clearly  show  us  that  the  future  world  will  be  a 
solid,  material  world,  purified,  indeed,  and  beautified,  but 
retaining  its  materialism. 

Let  us  now  see  whether,  in  coming  to  these  conclusions 
from  Scripture  language,  we  are  influenced  by  scientific 
considerations,  or  whether  many  discerning  fninds  have 
not,  in  all  ages,  attached  a  similar  meaning  to  the  inspired 
record. 

Among  all  nations,  the  history  of  whose  opinions  have 
come  down  to  us,  and  especially  among  the  Greeks,  the 
belief  has  prevailed  that  a  catastrophe  by  fire  awaited  the 
earth,  corresponding  to,  or  rather  the  counterpart  of,  a  pre- 
vious destruction  by  water.  These  catastrophes  they  de- 
nominated the  cataclysm,  or  destruction  by  -water,  and  the 
ecj/yrosis,  or  destruction  by  fire.  The  ruin  was  supposed 
to  be  followed,  in  each  case,  by  the  regeneration  of  the  earth 
in  an  improved  form,  which  gradually  deteriorated ;  the  first 
age  after  the  catastrophe  constituting  the  golden  age ;  the 


284    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

next,  the  silver  age ;  and  so  on  to  the  iron  age,  which  pre- 
ceded another  cataclysm,  or  ecpyrosis.  The  intervals  be- 
tween these  convulsions  were  rea-ardcd  as  of  various  leno-ths, 
but  all  of  them  of  great  duration. 

These  opinions  the  Greeks  derived  from  the  Egyptians. 

The  belief  in  the  future  conflagration  of  the  world  also 
prevailed  among  the  ancient  Jews.  Philo  says  that  "'the 
earth,  after  this  purification,  shall  appear  new  again,  even 
as  it  was  after  its  first  creation."  —  De  Vita  3Iosis,  torn.  ii. 
Among  the  Jews,  these  ideas  may  have  been,  in  part,  derived 
from  the  Old  Testament ;  though  its  language,  as  we  have 
seen,  is  far  less  explicit  on  this  subject  than  the  New  Testa- 
ment. That  distinguished  Christian  writers,  in  all  ages 
since  the  advent  of  Christ,  have  understood  tlie  language  of 
Peter  as  we  have  explained  it,  would  be  easy  to  show.  I 
have  room,  however,  to  quote  only  the  opinions  of  a  few 
distinguished  modern  writers. 

Dr.  Knapp,  one  of  the  most  scientific  and  judicious  of 
theologians,  thus  remarks  upon  the  passage  of  Peter  already 
examined:  "It  cannot  be  thought  that  what  is  here  said 
respecting  the  burning  of  the  w^orld  is  to  be  understood 
figuratively,  as  Wettstein  supposes ;  because  the  fire  is  here 
too  directly  opposed  to  the  literal  Avater  of  the  flood  to  be  so 
understood.  It  is  the  object  of  Peter  to  refute  the  boast  of 
scoffers,  that  all  things  had  remained  unchanged  from  the 
beginning,  and  that,  therefore,  no  day  of  judgment  and  no 
end  of  the  world  could  be  expected.  And  so  he  says  that 
originally,  at  the  time  of  the  creation,  the  whole  earth  was 
covered  and  overflowed  with  water  (Gen.  i.),  and  that  from 
hence  the  dry  land  appeared ;  and  the  same  was  true  at  the 
time  of  Noah's  flood.  Eut  there  is  yet  to  come  a  great  fire 
revolution.  The  heavens  and  the  earth  (the  earth  with  its 
atmosphere)  are  reserved,  or  kept  in  store,  for  the  fire,  until 
the  day  of  judgment  (v.  10).  At  that  time  the  heavens 
will  pass  away  with  a  great  noise,  and  the  elements  will  be 
dissolved  by  fervent  heat,  and  everything  upon  the  earth 
will  be  burnt  up.  The  same  thing  is  taught  in  verse  12. 
But  in  verse  lo  Peter  gives  the  design  of  this  revolution. 
It  will  not  be  anniliilation,  but  we  expect  a  new  heavens  and 
a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness,  i.  e.,  an  entirely 
new,  altered,  and  beautiful  abode  for  man,  to  be  built  from 


VIEWS    OF    DR.    EDAVARD    niTCHCOCK.  285 

the  ruins  of  his  former  dwelling-place,  as  the  future  habita- 
tion of  the  pious  (Rev.  21:  1).  This  will  be  very  much 
in  the  same  way  as  a  more  perfect  and  an  immortal  body 
will  be  reared  from  the  body  which  we  now  possess.*'  — 
Thcoh)(jy,  vol.  ii.,  p.  049. 

From  Dr.  Chalmers  my  extracts  will  be  longer  than  arc 
necessary  to  show  his  opinion  upon  this  subject,  because  he 
felicitously  refutes  certain  erroneous  ideas,  widely  prevalent, 
respecting  matter  and  spirit.  [The  extract  is  from  Chal- 
mers' Sermon,  on  a  previous  page,  and  so  here  omitted.] 

"  The  glorification  of  the  visible  creation,"  says  Tholuck, 
the  distinguished  German  divine,  "  is  more  definitely  de- 
clared in  Rev.  21  :  1,  although  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  a  prophetic  vision  is  there  described.  Still  more  defi- 
nitely do  we  find  the  l^elief  of  a  transformation  of  the  ma- 
terial world  declared  in  2  Peter  3  :  7—12.  The  idea  that 
the  perfected  kingdom  of  Christ  is  to  be  transferred  to 
heaven  is  properly  a  modern  notion.  According  to  Paul 
and  the  Revelation  of  John,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  placed 
upon  the  earth,  in  so  fiir  as  this  itself  has  part  in  the  uni- 
versal transformation.  Tliis  exposition  has  been  adopted 
and  defended  by  most  of  the  oldest  commentators ;  for  ex- 
ami»le,  Chrysostom,  Theodoret,  Hieronynms,  Augustine, 
Luther,  Koppe,  and  others.  Luther  says,  in  his  lively 
way :  '  God  will  make,  not  the  earth  only,  but  the  heavens 
also,  much  more  beautiful  than  they  are  at  present.  At 
present  we  see  the  world  in  its  working  clothes  ;  but  here- 
after it  will  be  arrayed  in  its  Easter  and  Whitsuntide  robes.'  " 

"  I  cannot  but  feel  astonishment,"  says  Dr.  John  Pye 
Smith,  "  that  any  serious  and  intelligent  man  should  have 
iiis  mind  fettered  with  the  common,  I  might  call  it  the  vul- 
gar, notion  of  a  proper  destruction  of  the  earth  ;  and  some 
seem  to  extend  the  notion  to  the  whole  solar  system,  and 
even  the  entire  material  universe ;  applying  the  idea  of  an 
extinction  of  being,  a  reducing  to  nothingness.  Tliis  notion 
has,  indeed,  been  often  used  to  aid  imjuissioned  description 
in  sermons  and  poetry ;  and  thus  it  has  gained  so  strong  a 
hold  upon  the  feelings  of  many  pious  persons,  that  they 
have  made  it  an  article  of  their  faith.  But  I  confess  my- 
self unable  to  find  an}"-  evidence  for  it  in  nature,  reason,  or 
Scripture.     Wc  can  discover  nothing  like  destruction  in  the 


286    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

matter  of  the  universe  as  subjected  to  our  senses.  Masses 
arc  disintegrated,  forms  are  changed,  compounds  are  decom- 
posed ;  but  not  an  atom  is  annihilated.  Neither  have  we 
the  shadow  of  reason  to  assert  that  mind,  the  seat  of  intelli- 
gence, ever  was,  or  ever  will  be,  in  a  single  instance,  de- 
stroyed. The  declaration  in  Sci'ipture  that  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  shall  flee  away,  and  no  more  place  be  found 
for  theni^  is  undoubtedly  figurative,  and  denotes  the  most 
momentous  changes  in  the  scenes  of  the  divine  moral  gov- 
ernment. If  it  be  the  purpose  of  God  that  the  earth  shall 
be  subjected  to  a  total  conflagration,  we  perfectly  well  know 
that  the  instruments  of  such  an  event  lie  close  at  hand,  and 
Avait  only  the  divine  volition  to  burst  out  in  a  moment.  But 
that  Avould  not  be  a  destruction ;  it  would  be  a  mere  change 
of  form,  and.  no  doubt,  would  be  subservient  to  the  most 
glorious  results.  TFe,  according  to  his  promise,  look 
for  neiD  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  wherein  dweUtth  ri(jht- 
eoHsnessy — Led  7  ires  on  Geolorjy  and  Revelation,"^.  IGl 
(4th  London  edition). 

Says  Dr.  Griffin,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  American  divines: 
"  A  question  here  arises,  whether  the  new  heavens  and  new 
earth  shall  be  created  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  old  ;  that  is, 
whether  the  old  will  be  renovated  and  restored  in  a  more 
glorious  form,  or  whether  the  old  Avill  be  annihilated,  and 
the  new  made  out  of  nothing.  The  idea  of  the  annihila- 
tion of  so  many  immense  and  glorious  bodies,  organized 
with  inimitable  skill,  and  declarative  of  infinite  wisdom,  is 
gloomy  and  forbidding.  Indeed,  it  is  scarcely  credible  that 
God  should  annihilate  any  of  his  works,  much  less  so  many 
and  so  glorious  works.  It  ought  not  to  be  believed  with- 
out the  most  decisive  proof  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  most 
animating  thought  that  this  visible  creation,  which  sin  has 
marred,  which  the  polluted  breath  of  men  and  devils  has 
defiled,  and  which  by  sin  will  be  reduced  to  utter  ruin,  will 
be  restored  by  our  Jesus,  will  arise  from  its  ruins  in  ten-fold 
splendor,  and  shine  with  more  illustrious  glory  tlian  before 
it  was  defaced  by  sin. 

"  After  a  laborious  and  anxious  search  on  this  interestinjz 
subject,  I  must  pronounce  the  latter  to  be  my  decided  opin- 
ion. And  the  same,  I  find,  has  been  the  more  common 
opinion  of  the  Christian  fathers,  of  the  divines  of  the  Re- 


VIEWS   OF   DR.    EDWAKD   niTCnCOCK.  287 

formation,  and  of  the  critics  and  annotators  who  have  since 
flourished.  I  coukl  produce  on  this  side  a  catalogue  of 
names  \vhich  Avould  convince  you  that  this  has  certainly  been 
the  common  opinion  of  the  Christian  church  in  every  age, 
as  it  Avas  also  of  the  Jewish. 

"  The  words  which  are  employed  to  express  the  destruc- 
tion ot"  the  world  do  not  necessarily  imply  annihilation.  Is 
it  said  that  the  world  shall  perish?  The  same  word  is  used 
to  express  the  ancient  destruction  of  the  world  by  the 
flood,  when  certainly  it  was  not  annihilated.  Is  it  said  that 
tlie  world  shall  have  an  end,  and  be  no  more  ?  This  may 
be  understood  only  of  the  present  form  and  organization  of 
the  visible  system.  Is  it  said  that  the  heavens  and  the 
earth  shall  be  dissolved  by  fire  ?  But  the  natural  power  of 
fire  is  not  to  annihilate,  but  only  to  dissolve  the  composition 
and  change  the  form  of  substances." — Scnno/is,  vol.  ii., 
p.  450. 

We  have  now  examined  the  most  important  testimony 
respecting  the  future  destruction  and  renovation  of  the 
earth  ;  for  inspiration  only  can  certiinly  determine  its  fu- 
ture condition.  But  science  may  throw  some  light  upon  the 
changes  through  which  it  is  to  pass.  And  I  now  proceed 
to  incjuire  whether  geology  affords  us  any  glimpses  of  its 
future  condition. 

In  the  first  idace,  geology  shows  us  that  the  earth  con- 
tains within  itself  all  the  agencies  necessary  for  its  future 
destruction  in  the  manner  pointed  out  in  the  Bible. 

Some  author  has  remarked  that,  from  the  earliest  times, 
there  has  been  a  loud  cry  of  fire.  We  have  seen  that  it 
began  with  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and  was  continued  by  the 
Greeks.  But  in  recent  times  it  has  wa.xed  louder  and  fiir  more 
distinct.  The  ancient  notions  about  the  existence  of  fire  within 
the  earth  were  almost  entirely  conjectural,  but  within  the 
present  century  the  matter  has  been  put  to  the  test  of  ex- 
periment. Wherever,  in  Europe  and  America,  the  temper- 
ature of  the  air,  the  waters,  and  the  rocks,  in  deep  excava- 
tions, has  been  ascertained,  it  has  been  found  higher  than 
the  mean  temperature  of  the  climate  at  the  surface  :  and  the 
experiment  has  lieen  made  in  hundreds  of  places.  It  is 
found,  too,  that  the  heat  increases  rapidly  as  avc  descend 
below  that  point  in  the  earth's  crust  to  which  the  sun's  heat 


288    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 


extends.  The  mean  rate  of  increase  has  been  stated  by  the 
British  Association  to  be  one  degree  of  Fahrenheit  for  every 
forty-five  feet.  At  this  rate,  all  known  rocks  would  be 
melted  at  the  depth  of  about  sixty  miles.  Shall  we  hence 
conclude  that  all  the  matter  of  the  globe  below  this  thick- 
ness (or,  rather,  for  the  sake  of  round  numbers,  below  one 
hundred  miles)  is  actually  in  a  melted  state  ?  Most  geolo- 
gists have  not  seen  how  such  a  conclusion  is  to  be  avoided. 
And  yet  this  would  leave  only  about  one  eight-hundredth 
part  of  the  earth's  diameter,  and  about  one  fourteenth  of 
its  contents,  or  bulk,  in  a  solid  state.  How  easy,  then, 
should  God  give  permission,  for  this  vast  internal  fiery 
ocean  to  break  through  its  envelope,  and  so  to  bury  the  solid 
crust  that  it  should  all  be  burnt  up  and  melted  !  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  such  a  result  might  take  place  even  by  natural 
operations.  And  certainly  it  would  be  easy  for  a  special 
divine  agency  to  accomplish  it. 

All  geologists,  then,  agree  that  the  elements  of  the  earth's 
final  conflagration  are  contained  Avithin  its  bosom  or  upon  its 
surface.  At  present,  those  elements  are  so  bound  down  by 
counteracting  agencies  that  all  is  quiet  and  security.  But 
let  the  fiat  of  the  Almighty  go  forth  for  their  liberation, 
and  t-he  scenes  of  the  last  day,  as  described  in  the  Bible, 
will  commence.  The  ploughshare  of  ruin  Tvill  be  driven 
onward,  until  this  fair  world  is  all  ingulfed,  and  no  trace 
of  organic  life  remains.  Yet  to  him  who  realizes  that  the 
destruction  is  only  a  necessary  preparation  for  a  brighter 
world,  which  will  emerge  from  the  ruins  of  the  jDresent; 
that,  when  the  matter  of  the  globe  has  been  purified,  its  sur- 
fixce  shall  be  covered  with  new  and  lovelier  forms  of  beauty, 
surrounded  by  a  still  more  bland  and  balmy  atmosphere, 
and  inhabited  by  sinless  and  immortal  beings, —  to  him  who 
realizes  all  this,  the  desolation  will  put  on  the  aspect  of  a 
glorious  transformation. 

We  have  reason  to  believe,  from  the  Christisin  Scriptures, 
that  the  next  economy  of  life  which  shall  be  placed  upon  the 
globe  will  far  transcend  all  those  that  have  gone  before. 
Every  vestige  of  sin,  suffering,  decay,  and  death,  will  disap- 
pear. Says  the  Bible  :  There  sha/l  be  no  more  death^ 
neither  sorrow  nor  crying^  neither  shall  there  be  any 
more  pain;  for  the  former  things  are  passed  away.    And 


VIEWS    OF   DR.    EDWARD    HITCHCOCK.  289 

there  shall  in  no  tvisc  ejiter  it  anything]  that  dcjilcth^ 
neither  whatsoever  worketh  abomination,  or  maketh  a  lie. 
In  short,  the  change  i.s  no  other  than  the  conversion  of  this 
world  into  heaven.  Reasonably,  therefore,  might  Ave  anti- 
cipate a  most  thorough  destruction  of  the  present  world,  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  introduction  of  such  a  glorious  state. 
The  Scriptures  describe  that  state  by  the  most  splendid  im- 
agery that  can  be  derived  from  existing  nature.  It  is  repre- 
sented, figuratively,  no  doubt,  as  a  splendid  city,  prepared  of 
God,  and  let  down  to  the  earth.  Its  twelve  foundations  are 
all  precious  stones,  its  gates  pearls,  its  wall  jasper,  and  its 
streets  pure  gold,  as  it  were,  transparent  glass.  The  Lord 
God  Almighty  and  the  Lamb  are  the  temple  of  that  city. 
Instead  of  the  sun  and  tlie  moon,  the  glory  of  God  enlight- 
ens it.  and  the  Lamb  is  the  light  thereof  From  out  of 
their  throne  proceeds  the  water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal ;  and 
along  its  banks  grows  the  tree  of  life,  with  its  twelve  man- 
ner of  fruits,  yielding  its  fruit  every  month. 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  most  splendid  and  enchanting 
objects  in  nature  brought  before  us  as  representatives  of  the 
new  heavens  and  the  new  earth.  Yet  we  cannot  learu  from 
the  Bible,  or  science,  what  material  dress  nature  will  then 
put  on.  We  are  taught  only  that  it  Avill  far  exceed,  in 
splendor  and  perfection,  the  drapery  which  she  now  wears. 
We  may  be  assured  that  it  will  be  eminently  adapted  to  a 
spirit  that  is  henceforth  to  be  perfectly  holy,  happy,  incor- 
ruptible, and  immortal.  Both  revelation  and  geology  agree 
in  assuring  us  that  the  new  earth,  which  will  emerge  from 
the  ruins  of  the  present,  will  be  improved  in  its  condition ; 
but  the  particulars  of  that  condition  are  not  described, — 
probably  because  we  could  not,  in  our  present  state,  under- 
stand them. 

The  Scriptures  represent  the  material  aspect  of  the  new 
heaven  and  the  new  earth,  when  first  the  righteous  enter 
upon  them,  to  be  one  of  surpassing  glory.  I>ut  why  may 
not  other  developments  await  them  in  the  round  of  eternal 
ages,  as  their  expanding  faculties  are  able  to  understand  and 
appreciate  them  ? 

The  greater  the  variety  of  new  scenes  in  the  material  world 
which  shall  be  presented  to  the  mind,  such  as  an  infinite 
Deity  shall  devise,  the  more  intense  the  happiness  of  their 
25 


290    THE  NEW  HEAVENS  AND  THE  NEW  EARTH. 

contemplations ;  and  who  can  set  limits  to  the  permutations 
which  such  a  being  can  produce,  even  upon  matter?  I  can 
form  no  conjecture  as  to  the  nature  of  those  new  develop- 
ments ;  nor  do  I  believe  they  could  be  understood  in  our 
present  state.  I  feel  as  if  those  formed  too  low  an  estimate 
of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,  who  imagine  a  repe- 
tition there  of  the  most  curious  organic  structures,  the  most 
splendid  flowers  and  fruits,  and  the  most  enchanting  land- 
scapes, of  the  present  world.  I  fancy  that  scenes  far  more 
enchanting,  and  objects  far  more  glorious,  will  meet  the  soul 
at  its  first  entrance  upon  the  new  earth,  even  though  to  mortal 
vision  it  should  present  only  an  ocean  of  fire.  I  imagine  a 
thousand  new  inlets  into  the  soul, —  nay,  I  think  of  it  as  all 
eye,  all  ear,  all  sensation  ;  now  plunging  deeper  into  the 
infinitesimal  parts  of  matter  than  the  microscope  can  carry  us, 
and  now  soaring  away,  perhaps  on  the  waves  of  the  myste- 
rious ether,  far  beyond  the  ken  of  the  telescope.  And  if 
such  is  the  first  entrance  into  heaven,  who  can  conjecture 
what  new  fields  and  new  glories  shall  open  before  the  mind, 
and  fill  it  Avith  ecstasy,  as  it  flies  onward  without  end  !  But  I 
dare  u^t  indulge  further  in  these  hypothetical,  yet  fascinating 
thoughts  ;  yet  let  us  never  forget  that  in  a  very  short  time, 
far  shorter  than  we  imagine,  all  the  scenes  of  futurity  will 
be  to  us  a  thrilling  reality.  We  shall  then  know  in  a  mo- 
ment how  much  of  truth  there  is  in  these  speculations.  But 
if  they  all  prove  false,  fully  confident  am  I  that  the  scenes 
which  will  open  upon  us  Avill  surpass  our  liveliest  concep- 
tions. The  glass  through  which  we  now  see  darkly  Avill  be 
removed,  and  face  to  face  shall  we  meet  eternal  glories. 
Then  shall  we  learn  that  our  present  bodily  organs,  however 
admirably  adapted  to  our  condition  here,  were  in  fact  clogs 
upon  the  soul,  intended  to  fetter  its  free  range,  that  we 
might  the  more  richly  enjoy  the  liberty  of  the  sons  of  God, 
and  expatiate  in  the  spiritual  body,  the  building  of  God, 
the  house  not  made  with  haiids^  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

Let  us,  then,  live  continually  under  the  influence  of  the 
scenes  that  await  us  beyond  the  grave.  They  will  thus  be- 
come fiimiliar  to  us,  and  we  shall  appreciate  their  infinite 
superiority  to  the  objects  that  so  deeply  interest  us  on  earth. 
We  shall  be  led  to  look  forward,  even  with  strong  desire,  in 
spite  of  the  repulsive  aspect  of  death,  to  that  state  where 


VIEWS    OF   DR.    EDWARD    HITCHCOCK.  291 

the  soul  will  be  freed  from  her  prison-house  of  flesh  and 
blood,  and  can  range  in  untiring  freedom  through  the  bound- 
less fields  of  knowledge  and  happiness  that  are  in  prospect. 
Then  shall  we  learn  to  despise  the  low  aims  and  conti'acted 
views  of  the  sensualist,  the  demagogue,  and  the  worldling. 
High  and  noble  thoughts  and  aspirations  will  lift  our  souls 
above  the  murky  atmosphere  of  this  world,  and,  while  yet 
in  the  body,  we  shall  begin  to  breathe  the  empyreal  air  of 
the  new  heavens,  and  to  gather  the  fruits  of  the  ti'ee  of  life 
in  the  new  earth,  where  righteousness  only  shall  forever 
dwell. 


ONE  HUNDRED  WITNESSES  ON  THE  STAND, 

TESTIFYING     AGAINST 

THE    MODERN    AVHITBYAN    THEORY 

OF 

A  MILLENNIUM  OF  RIGHTEOUSNESS 

BEFORE 

THE  COMING  OF  CHRIST  AND  RESURRECTION  OF  THE  SAINTS. 


25* 


I 


THE  TEMPORAL  I\IILLENNIUM  A  MODERN 
NOVELTY. 

Human  testimony  should  ^veigh  nothing  against  plain 
scriptural  declarations, — God's  Avord  being  the  only  Protest- 
ant rule  of  faith  ;  *  yet  multitudes,  in  opposition  to  the  ex- 
plicit teachings  of  inspiration,  reject  the  doctrine  of  the 
personal  reign  of  Christ,  Avith  his  risen  saints,  on  the  new 
earth,  because  of  its  supposed  novelty.  As  such  persons, 
like  the  Jews  of  old,  are  ever  ready  to  inquire,  "  Have  any 
of  the  rulers  and  of  the  Pharisees  believed  on  him?"  it  be- 
comes necessary  to  show  that  this  charge  of  novelty  is 
founded  on  a  mistaken  opinion ;  and  that  the  present  gen- 
erally received  theory  of  the  universal  prevalence  of  right- 
eousness on  the  earth,  before  the  resurrection  of  the  saints, 
is  itself  a  novelty,  and  has  prevailed  in  the  church  for  less 
than  two  centuries. 

Dr.  Henshaw,  the  late  Bishop  of  Rhode  Island,  in  his 
Treatise  on  the  Second  Advent,  says : 

"  So  far  as  we  have  l)een  able  to  investigate  its  history,  it 
was  first  advanced  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Whitby,  the  commenta- 
tor, and  afterwards  advocated  by  Hammond.  Hopkins,  Scott, 
Dwight,  Bouguc,  and  others,  and  has  been  received  without 
careful  examination  by  the  majority  of  evangelical  divines  in 
the  present  day.  But  we  may  safely  challenge  its  advocates 
to  produce  one  distinguished  writer  in  its  fiivor,  who  lived 
before  the  commencement  of  the  eighteenth  century.  If 
antiquity  is  to  be  considered  as  any  test  of  truth,  the  advo- 
cates of  the  prcmillennial  advent  and  personal  reign  of  Christ 

*  "  The  supreme  judge,  by  which  all  controversies  of  religion  are  to  be 
determined,  and  aU  decrees  of  councils,  onxioxs  of  ancient  -writers, 
DOCTRINES  of  nicn  and  private  spirits,  are  to  be  examined,  and  in  whose 
sentence  we  ai-e  to  rest,  can  be  no  other  than  the  holy  Scripture  deliv- 
ered by  the  Spirit;  into  which  Scripture,  so  delivered,  our  faith  is  finally 
resolved."  —  Dec.  of  Faith  of  the  Congregational  Churches,  A,  D.  1658. 


296  ONE   HUNDRED  WITNESSES. 

•with  his  saints  upon  earth,  need  have  no  fears  of  the  result 
of  a  comparison  of  authorities  with  the  supporters  of  the 
opposite  theory."* 

Daniel  Whitby,  D.D.,  who  is  thus  referred  to,  was  born 
A.  D.  1638,  in  England,  and  died  A.  D.  172Y.  In  the 
development  of  his  theory,  he  denominated  it  "a  new 
hypothesis ; "  and  he  said  of  the  view  which  he  rejected  : 

'•  The  doctrine  of  the  Millennium,  or  the  reign  of  saints 
on  earth  a  thousand  years,  is  now  rejected  by  all  Roman 
Catholics,  and  by  the  greatest  part  of  Protestants ;  and  yet 
it  passed  among  the  best  of  Christians,  for  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years,  for  a  tradition  apostolical,  and,  as  such,  is  de- 
livered by  many  fathers  of  the  second  and  third  century, 
who  speak  of  it  as  the  tradition  of  our  Lord  and  his 
apostles,  and  of  all  the  ancients  who  lived  before  them,  who 
tell  us  the  very  words  in  which  it  was  delivered,  the  Scrip- 
tures which  were  then  so  interpreted ;  and  say  that  it  was 
held  by  all  Chj-istians  that  were  exactly  orthodox.''^  — 
"Whitby's  Treatise  on  Traditions. 

This  admission,  respecting  the  faith  of  the  primitive 
church,  by  the  founder  of  the  spiritual  and  now  prevalent 
view,  will  not  be  gainsaid  by  any  intelligent  person.  That 
this  faith  was  rejected  by  the  apostate  Papal  church  is  ad- 
mitted, but  that  militates  nothing  against  the  probability  of 
its  truth.  That  the  greater  number  of  Protestants  also  now 
reject  it  is  also  undoubtedly  true ;  but,  in  so  doing,  the  fact 
that  they  imitate  the  Papal  apostates,  rather  than  the  "  best 
of  the  primitive  Christians,"  is  no  argument  in  their  favor. 

It  will  not  be  understood  that  the  following  witnesses  all 
agree  in  the  details  of  their  respective  views,  and  no  opinion 
should  be  imputed  to  any  one,  further  than  is  expressed  in 
his  own  words.  Among  those  who  have  believed  the  second 
advent  to  be  imminent,  some  have  held  that  the  Lord  Jesus 
would  then  come  only  to  judge  and  to  destroy  the  earth, 
and  that  he  would  remove  his  resurrected  and  changed 
saints  to  some  distant  sphere ;  while  others,  who  looked  to 
the  regenerated  earth  as  the  future  abode  of  the  saints,  have 
regarded  the  resurrection  as  general,  to  both  saint  and  sin- 
ner, at  the  same  epoch.     The  term  Millennarian  is  properly 

*  Henshaw  on  2d  Advent,  p.  115. 


THOSE   WHO   SLEEP  IN   JESUS.  297 

applicable  only  to  those  who  recognize  the  interval  of  1000 
years  between  the  resurrection  of  the  just  and  that  of  the 
rest  of  the  dead.  But,  however  much  their  views  may  vary 
on  these  minor  points,  they  either  agree  in  teaching  constant 
watchfulness  for  the  Lords  coming,  as  an  event  that  may 
bo  ever  looked  for,  without  the  intervention  of  1000  years 
of  a  spiritual  reign,  as  taught  by  Whitby  and  his  followers; 
or  they  admit  the  renewal  of  this  planet,  which,  admitted, 
necessarily  becomes  the  subject  of  the  predictions  respecting 
the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  and  its  future  glory  here. 

THOSE  "WHO  SLEEP  IN  JESUS. 

"These  all  died  in  the  faith,  not  having  received  the 
promises,  but  having  seen  them  afar  off,  and  were  persuad- 
ed of  them,  and  embraced  them,  and  confessed  that  they 
were  strangers  and  pilgrims  on  the  earth,  .  .  .  God  having 
provided  some  better  thing  for  us,  that  they  without  us 
should  not  be  made  perfect." — Heb.  11:  13,  40. 

Not  only  the  belief  in  a  spiritual  millennium  has  done 
much  to  cause  Christians  to  cease  to  look  for  their  Lord, 
but  the  view  now  generally  prevalent,  that  Christians  are 
admitted  at  death  to  the  full  glory  of  their  eternal  state, 
has  also  caused  them  to  regard  the  resurrection  with  less 
interest,  if  not  as  of  little  importance. 

When  Paul  preached  to  the  Gentiles  Jesus  and  the 
resioTection.  it  was  in  opposition  to  the  heathen  view,  that 
the  spirits  of  the  departed,  at  death,  entered  on  their  final 
careers  of  happiness  or  misery :  for  to  such  dignity  did  they 
suppose  distinguished  heroes  were  advanced,  that  they  im- 
puted to  them  a  place  among  the  gods,  and  adored  them  as 
such.  The  Scriptures,  on  the  contrary,  represent  the 
resurrection  as  the  saints'  coronation  day ;  and  the  day  of 
Christ's  appearing,  as  that  of  the  consummation  of  their 
blessedness. 

Paul  indeed  testifies,  that  for  him  '•  to  live  is  Christ,  and 
to  die  is  gain"'  (Phil.  1:  21),  and  that  he  had  "a  desire  to 
depart,  and  to  be  with  Christ,  which  is  far  better"  than  to 
abide  in  the  flesh  (v.  23)  ;  for  he  says  (in  2  Cor.  5 :  6), 
"  Whilst  we  are  at  home  in  the  body,  we  are  absent  from 
the  Lord;"  and  this  made  him  (v.  8)  "willing  rather  to 


298  ONE  HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

be  absent  from  the  body,  and  to  be  present  with  the  Lord." 
And  yet  it  was  not  so  much  for  death,  when  he  should  be 
"  unclothed  "  (v.  4),  as  for  the  resurrection,  when  he  should 
be  "clothed  upon,  that  mortality  might  be  swallowed  up  of 
life,"  that  Christians  in  this  "tabernacle,"  in  Paul's  day, 
most  ardently  "groaned."  Such  was  also  the  faith  of  the 
primitive  church ;  for  Justin  Martyr,  in  his  Dialogue  with 
Trypho  the  Jew,  says  : 

If  "you  fall  in  with  certain  who  are  called  Christians, 
who  confess  not  this  [truth],  but  dare  to  blaspheme  the 
God  of  Abraham,  and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  that  they  say 
there  is  no  resurrection  of  the  dead,  but  that,  immediately 
they  die,  their  souls  are  received  up  into  heaven,  avoid 
them,  and  esteem  them  not  as  Christians."  "  However,  I 
affirm  that  no  soul  perishes  entirely,  or  is  annihilated ;  for 
that  would  really  be  good  and  joyful  news  to  the  wicked. 
What  then  ?  why,  that  the  souls  of  the  righteous  are  reserved 
in  a  place  of  happiness,  and  those  of  the  w'icked  and  unjust 
in  a  place  of  misery  and  torment,  in  expectation  of  the 
great  day  of  judgment." 

The  Papists,  when  they  substituted  saint-worship  for  the 
pagan  hero-worship,  in  order  to  canonize  their  new  gods, 
had  to  suppose  them  purified  by  purgatorial  fires,  of  a 
longer  or  shorter  duration,  or  by  the  superior  merit  of  their 
own  pious  acts,  and  ushered  into  glory  before  the  resurrec- 
tion, as  the  pagans  did  their  heroes,  without  a  resurrection, 
and  without  such  purification.  Modern  Protestants  have 
adhered  to  the  Papal  doctrine  of  glorification  before  the 
second  advent  —  merely  abandoning  the  Papal  dogmas  of 
purgatory  and  meritorious  works.  And  this  error  has 
doubtless  done  much  to  diminish  desire  for  the  resurrection 
—  the  body  being  regarded,  by  many,  as  a  mere  clog  to  the 
capacities  of  the  spirit.  Mr.  Brooks,  in  his  "  Essays,"  goes 
into  a  full  examination  of  this  question ;  referring  to  which, 
he  says : 

"  I  have  shown,  in  another  work  {Abdiel's  JSssays,  p. 
93),  that  the  believer  enjoys  at  death  a  conscious  blessedness, 
which  renders  it  better  for  him  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ, 
than  to  remain  in  the  body ;  but  it  is  equally  clear,  from 
Scripture  and  from  the  Fathers,  that  the  believer  does  not 
at  death  '  ascend  into   the   heavens, '  any  more   than   did 


THOSE    WHO    SLEEP    IN    JESUS.  299 

David  (Acts  2 :  34)  ;  or  than  Christ  did  between  his  death 
and  resurrection ;  Avho  went  to  paradise,  and  had  not  even 
after  his  resurrection  yet  ascended  unto  the  Father. —  John 
20  :  17.  It  is  very  phiin,  from  the  testimony  of  Justin, 
that  in  the  primitive  church  they  held  those  not  to  be  Cliris- 
tians  who  maintained  that  souls  are  received  up  into  heaven 
immediately  after  death.  Irenreus  ranks  them,  in  his  Avork 
against  Heresies  (lib.  v.),  as  among  the  heretical;  and  the 
testimony  of  the  church  is  imlfonn  on  this  ])oint  (if  we 
accept  some  questionable  passages  in  Cyprian)  down  into 
Popish  times;  ana  it  was  indeed  the  general  opinion  of  the 
Greek  and  Latin  churches,  down  to  theX^ouncil  of  Florence, 
held  under  Pope  Eugenius  IV.  in  1439.  A  passage  from 
Bishop  Taylor's  'Liberty  of  Prophesying'  (sect,  viii.)  will 
set  this  matter  in  a  clear  W^Axi.  When  showing  how  doc- 
trines  of  anticjuity  were  sometimes  contradicted  in  subsequent 
ages  by  councils,  or  by  some  ecclesiastic  of  power  or  ])opu- 
larit}'-,  he  says  :  '  That  is  a  plain  recession  from  antiquity, 
which  was  determined  by  the  Council  of  Florence  — piorum 
aninms  puryatas,  t^'c,  inox  in  cosliim  recipi  et  intueri 
dare  ipsiini  Dcn/ii  trinnni  ct  i/nifin  sioftl  est  {that  the 
soi/ls  of  the  pious,  hcinfj  parificd,  arc  immediately  at 
death  received  into  heaven,  and  behold  clearly  the  triune 
God,  just  as  he  is)  :  for  those  who  please  to  try  may  see 
it  dogmatically  resolved  to  the  contrary  by  Justin  Martyr, 
Irenreus,  Origen,  Chrysostome,  Theodoret,  Arethas  Cresa- 
riensis,  Euthymius,  who  may  answer  for  the  Greek  church. 
And  it  is  plain  that  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  Greek  church, 
by  that  great  difficulty  the  Romans  had  of  bringing  the 
Greeks  to  subscribe  to  the  Florentine  Council,  where  the 
Latins  acted  tlieir  masterpiece  of  wit  and  stratagem, — the 
greatest  that  hath  been  till  the  famous  and  super-politic 
Council  of  Trent.  And  for  the  Latin  church,  Tertullian, 
Ambrose,  Austin,  Hilary,  Prudentius,  Lactantius,  Victori- 
nus,  and  Bernard,  are  known  to  be  of  opinion  that  the  souls 
of  the  saints  are  in  abditis  rcceptaculis  et  exterioribus 
atriis  (in  private  receptacles  and  in  more  outward  courts), 
Avhere  they  expect  the  resurrection  of  their  bodies  and  the 
glorification  of  their  souls ;  and  though  they  all  believe 
them  to  be  happy,  yet  that  they  enjoy  not  the  beatific  vision 
before  the  resurrection.' 


300  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

"  The  Stratagem  employed  bj  the  Romanists,  to  "which 
Bishop  Taylor  alludes,  is,  I  suppose,  the  fact  recorded  in  the 
History  of  this  Council  by  Creighton,  who  Avrote  in  1660, 
and  in  Geddes'  hitroductory  Discourse  to  Varffas\t  Let- 
ters ;  who  state  that  the  Pope  first  inveigled  the  Patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  and  some  of  his  clergy,  to  meet  him  at 
a  Council  at  Ferrara,  which  he  then  adroitly  adjourned  to 
Florence ;  and  when  the  Greek  ecclesiastics  pleaded  ina- 
bility to  bear  the  charges,  he  actually  defrayed  all  their 
expenses  himself.  The  patriarch  died  at  Florence,  and  the 
Greek  church  (according  to  Gaspar  PencA'us)  not  only  dis- 
owned the  acts  of  the  clergy  present,  but  excommunicated 
them,  and  denied  them  Christian  burial. 

"The  early  Reformers  maintained  the  primitive  faith  on 
this  point,  plainly  perceiving  that  the  object  of  the  Papists 
was  to  help  forward  the  doctrine  of  purgatory  and  invoca- 
tion of  saints.  Thus  Tyndal,  disputing  with  the  Papists, 
says  :  '  If  the  souls  be  in  heaven,  tell  me  why  they  be  not 
in  as  good  case  as  the  angels  be  ?  and  then,  what  cause  is 
there  of  the  resurrection?  ' — p.  324,  Works  by  Fox.  And 
afterwards,  in  reply  to  More,  who  objects  against  Luther 
that  his  doctrine  on  this  point  encouraged  the  sinner  to  con- 
tinue in  sin,  seeing  it  so  long  postponed  the  ultimate  judg- 
ment, Tyndal  says :  '  Christ  and  his  apostles  taught  no 
other,  but  warned  to  look  for  Christ's  coming  again  every 
hour  ;  which  coming  again,  because  ye  believe  it  will  never 
be,  therefore  have  ye  feigned  that  other  merchandise.' 

"  Calvin  also,  in  his  Psychopannychia,  replies  thus  to 
another  objection  against  this  doctrine :  '  I  answer  that 
Christ  is  our  Head,  whose  kingdom  and  glory  have  not 
yet  appeared.  If  the  members  were  to  go  before  the  head, 
the  order  of  things  would  be  inverted  and  preposterous. 
But  we  shall  follow  our  Prince  then,  when  he  shall  come  in 
the  glory  of  his  Father,  and  sit  upon  the  throne  of  his 
majesty.' —  p.  55. 

"It  is  greatly  to  be  lamented  that  the  Protestant  church 
of  a  later  period  should  have  fallen  into  the  errors  of  the 
Papists  on  this  subject,  abating  the  distinct  acknowledg- 
ment of  purgatory ;  errors,  the  adoption  of  which  has  done 
more  than  any  other  thing,  perhaps,  towards  withdrawing 
from  the  church  the  lively  expectation  of  Christ's  Advent." 
— Elements  of  Prophetic  Interpretation,  pp.  52,  53. 


TESTIMONY    OF    TUE    REFORMERS.  301 

As  the  coming  of  the  Lord  is  universally  admitted  to 
have  been  the  hope  of  the  church  "in  its  purest  and  best 
age,"*  it  will  only  be  necessary  to  show  that  a  "cloud  of 
witnesses  "  have  continued  to  testify  to  it,  since  the  Reform- 
ation till  now.     And  first  we  have 

the  testimony  of  the  reformers. 
From  Martix  Lutiier. 

(Born  A.  D.  1483,  in  Germany;  died,  1546.) 

"  In  the  year  1541,  when,  during  a  very  beautiful  spring, 
everything  flourished  and  l)loomed,  Luther  said  to  Justus 
Jonas  :  '  If  only  sin  and  death  were  absent,  we  would  be 
satisfied  with  such  a  paradise.  But  it  will  be  much  more 
beautiful  when  the  old  world  and  the  old  state  of  things 
will  be  entirely  renovated,  and  an  eternal  spring  begin, 
which  will  be  and  continue  forever.'  The  computation  of 
those  who  confidently  fi.xcd  the  year  and  the  day  of  the  final 
judgment  being  once  referred  to,  he  said  :  '  No,  verily,  the 
text  is  too  plain  in  Matthew  xxiv. :  Concerning  the  day  and 
the  hour  knoweth  no  man,  no,  not  the  angels  in  heaven,  but 
alone  my  Father ;  therefore  neither  I,  nor  any  man,  nor  an- 
gel, can  fix  the  day  or  the  hour.  I  believe,  nevertheless, 
that  all  the  signs  which  are  to  precede  the  last  day  have- 
already  happened.  The  Gospel  is  preached  throughout  the 
world ;  the  child  of  perdition  is  revealed,  and  destroyed  in 
the  hearts  of  many ;  the  kingdom  of  Rome  is  declining  to 
its  fall ;  all  the  elements  and  creatures  are  in  commotion, 
and  declining ;  there  is  no  longer  any  love  or  fidelity  on 
earth,  and  Christ  may  come  when  he  may,  he  will  find  but 
a  small  flock  of  believers ;  excess  in  eating  and  drinking, 
the  practise  of  usury,  anxious  cares,  covetousness,  extrava- 
gance in  dress  and  liuilding,  and  all  manner  of  irregularity, 
verily  being  as  prevalent  now  as  they  were  at  the  times  of 
Noah  :  wherefore  I  conceive  that  the  signs  preceding  the  last 
day  are  fulfilled.  Unless  it  should  lie  that  Gog  and  Magog, 
together  with  the  Papacy,  should  yet  be  crushed  and  de- 
stroyed previously,  in  a  temporal  respect  too,  and  that  pai'- 
ticular  and  supernatural  darkness  should  perhaps  be  wit- 

♦  Sec  a  valuable  work  entitled  the  "  Voice  of  the  Church,"  by  Elder  D.  T. 
Taylor,  which  contains  much  information  on  this  subject. 

26 


802  ONE    IlUNDllED    WITNESSES. 

nessed  in  the  sun  and  moon,  as  was  the  case  at  the  death  of 
Christ,  and  that  the  Gospel  should,  previously  to  the  last 
day,  be  banished  from  all  the  churches,  schools,  and  pulpits, 
and  be  found  only  with  pious  heads  of  families,  within  their 
four  walls,  as  it  was  at  the  times  of  Elijah,  and  as  it  verily 
almost  seems  it  will  be  now.  Otherwise,  everything  is  ful- 
filled which  is  to  precede  the  last  day.  Methinks  Christ 
our  Lord  is  already  publishing  his  summons  in  heaven,  and 
the  angels  are  preparing  for  the  journey,  and  because  dur- 
ing these  six  thousand  years  all  the  great  and  marvellous 
events  of  which  Elijah  prophesied  have  occurred  in  spring 
and  about  Easter,  I  trust  Christ  will  also  appear  about 
Easter,  and  cause  his  voice  and  thunder  to  be  heard  in  a 
morning  tempest,  and  then  with  one  stroke,  confounding  the 
heavens  and  the  earth,  in  a  moment  of  time  transform 
the  living,  raise  the  dead,  create  a  new  heaven  and  earth, 
hold  his  judgment  in  the  clouds,  wholly  fulfil  the  Scriptures, 
together  with  his  last:  It  is  finished ;  THIS  WE  await.'  '*' 
— Meiirer's  Life  of  Luthej-^  pp.  573,  574. 

"The  world  has  grown  very  stubborn  and  headstrong 
since  the  revelation  of  the  word  of  the  Gospel.  It  begins  to 
crack  sorely,  and  I  hope  will  soon  break  and  fall  on  a  heap 
through  the  coming  of  the  day  of  judgment,  for  which  we 
wait  with  yearnings  and  sighs  of  heart." — Table  Talk, 
chap.  4. 

'•  Some,  in  explaining  this  passage,  'other  sheep  I  have,' 
say  that  before  the  latter  days  the  whole  world  shall  be- 
come Christians.  This  is  a  falsehood  forged  by  Satan,  that 
he  might  darken  sound  doctrine,  that  we  might  not  rightly 
understand  it.  Beware,  therefore,  of  this  delusion." — Com. 
on  John  10  :  16. 

"  The  world  is  as  it  ever  has  been,  the  world,  and  desires 
to  know  nothing  of  Christ.  Let  it  go  its  own  way.  They 
continue  to  rage  and  grow  worse  from  day  to  day,  which, 
indeed,  is  a  solace  to  the  weary  soul,  as  it  shows  that  the 
glorious  day  of  the  Lord  is  at  hand.  The  world  is  given 
up  to  its  own  ways,  that  the  day  of  its  destruction  and  our 
salvation  should  be  hastened.     Amen,  so  be  it." 

"  May  the  Lord  come  at  once  !  Let  Him  cut  the  whole 
matter  short  with  the  day  of  judgment,  for  there  is  no 
amendment  to  be  expected." — Life,  p.  342. 


TESTIMONY    OF    TUE    REFORMERS.  303 

"I  see  no  other  prayer  that  is  fitting,  but  only  this, — 
Thy  kingdom  come.  ' — /i.,  p.  343. 

'•  Let  us  not  therefore  be  wanting  to  ourselves,  disregard- 
ing the  most  diligent  premonition  and  prophecy  of  Christ 
our  Saviour ;  but  seeing  in  our  age  the  signs  foretold  by 
him  do  often  come  to  pass,  let  us  not  think  that  the  coming 
of  Christ  is  far  off.  And  now  let  us  look  up  with  heads 
lifted  up.  and  let  us  e.xpect  our  Redeemer's  coming  with  a 
longing  and  cheerful  mind.  For  though  the  signs  may  seem 
uncertain,  yet  no  man  can  despise  them  without  danger; 
seeing  there  can  be  not  only  no  danger,  but  also  great  profit, 
if,  reckoning  them  as  true,  thou  shalt  prepare  thyself  to  meet 
thy  Saviour ;  that  is,  if,  bidding  farewell  to  present  things, 
thou  shalt  be  wholly  taken  up  with  the  desire  of  the  king- 
dom of  God  that  is  coming.  Let  us  follow  certain  things, 
and  the  signs  we  have  lately  seen  brought  forth  ;  let  us  not 
doubt  but  that  they  are  true  signs  of  tlie  last  day,  lest  wo 
stumble  with  those  profane  men  of  the  world,  and  meet 
with  sudden  destruction,  when  we  shall  promise  nothing  but 
quietness  to  ourselves." —  Quoted  from  the  London  Q. 
J.  of  Prophecy,  vol.  i.,  p.  445. 

From  Philip   Melanctiion. 

(Born  A.  D.  1497;  died  in  loCO.) 

"  This  aged  Avorld  is  not  far  from  its  end.'' —  Quoted  by 
Mr.  Elliott. 

From  John  Knox.     (  The  founder  of  the  Pres.  Ch. 
in  Scotland.^ 

(Born  A.  r.  1505;   died  in  1572.) 

"  Has  not  the  Lord  Jesus,  in  despite  of  Satan's  malice, 
carried  up  our  flesh  into  heaven?  And  shall  he  not  re- 
turn ?  We  know  that  he  shall  return,  and  that  with  expe- 
dition." 

'•  What  were  this  else  but  to  reform  the  face  of  the  whole 
earth,  which  never  was,  nor  yet  shall  be,  till  that  righteous 
King  and  Judge  appear  for  the  restoration  of  all  things." 
—  Treatise  on    Fastinr/. 

"Our  heavenly  Father,  of  His  infinite  wisdom,  to  hold 
us  in  remembrances  that  in  this  wretched  world  there  is  no 
rest,  suffereth  us  to  be  tried  with  this  cross,  that  with  an 


304  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

unfeigned  heart  we  may  desire,  not  only  an  end  of  our  own 
troubles  (for  that  shall  come  to  us  by  death),  but  also  of 
all  ti'oubles  of  the  Church  of  God,  which  shall  not  be  before 
the  again  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus." — Quoted  from  the 
London  Q.  J.  of  Prophecy. 

"  Consider,  by  the  signs  forespoken  by  our  Master,  Christ 
Jesus,  which,  for  the  most  part,  are  now  present,  the  days 
of  this  most  corrupt  world  to  be  short,  and  therefore  the 
joyful  deliverance  of  the  oppressed  and  afflicted  flock  to  ap- 
proach."—  Ib.^  vol.  iv.,  p.  412. 

From  John  Calvin. 

(Born  A.  D.  1509,  in  Picardy,  France,  and  died  in  15G4.) 

"  I  expect  with  Paul  a  reparation  of  all  the  evils  caused 
by  sin,  for  which  he  represents  the  creatures  as  groaning 
and  travailing." — Institiites,  vol.  iii.,  chap.  25. 

"  Since  Scripture  uniformly  enjoins  us  to  look  with 
expectation  to  the  advent  of  Christ,  and  delays  the  crown 
of  glory  till  that  period,  let  us  be  contented  with  the  limits 
divinely  prescribed  to  us,  viz.,  that  the  souls  of  the  right- 
eous, after  their  warfare  is  ended,  obtain  blessed  rest,  where 
in  joy  they  wait  for  the  fruition  of  promised  glory,  and 
that  thus  the  final  result  is  suspended  till  Christ  the 
Redeemer  appear."  —  Jb.,  B.  iii.,  chap.  25,  sect.  6. 

' '  There  is  no  reason  why  any  person  shouLl  expect  the 
conversion  of  the  world  :  for  at  length  (when  it  will  be  too 
late,  and  will  yield  them  no  advantage)  they  shall  look  on 
Him  whom  they  have  pierced."  —  lb.,  B.  iii.,  chap.  9. 

"  We  must  hunger  after  Christ,  we  must  seek,  contem- 
plate, &c.,  till  the  dawning  of  that  great  day,  when  our 
Lord  will  fully  manifest  the  glory  of  his  kingdom.  " — lb., 
B.  iii.,  chap.  18. 

''■  Christ  is  our  head,  whose  kingdom  and  glory  have  not 
yet  appeared.  If  the  members  were  to  go  before  their 
Head,  the  order  of  things  would  be  inverted  and  preposter- 
ous :  but  we  shall  follow  our  Prince  then,  when  he  shall 
come  in  the  glory  of  his  Father,  and  sit  upon  the  throne  of 
his  majesty."  —  See  p.  300. 


TESTIMONY    OF    ENGLISH    MARTYRS.  305 

TESTIMOiry   OF   MARTYRS    OF   THE    CHTJRCH   OF  ENG- 

LAND. 

(Imprisoned  in  ono  Room  in  the  Tower  of  London.) 

There  were  four  famous  men,  of  Avhom  Latimer  writes : 
"Mr.  Cranmcr,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury :  Mr.  Ridlcj, 
Bishop  of  London ;  that  holy  man,  Mr.  Bradford,  and  I,  ohl 
Hugh  Latimer,  Avere  imprisoned  in  the  Tower  of  London 
for  Christs  gospel-preaching,  and  because  we  Avould  not  go 
a  massiiiff.  The  same  tower  being  so  full  of  prisoners,  we 
four  were  thrust  into  one  chamber,  as  men  not  to  be  ac- 
counted of"  Here  these  venerable  men  passed  their  time 
in  reading  and  studying  the  Scriptures,  and  enlightening 
and  confirming  each  others  faith." —  Cranmcr  and  his 
Times,  p.  248. 

From  Bishop  Huou  Latimer. 

(Born  in  England  A.  D.  1470;   burned  at  the  stake  a.  d.  I.'jj,').) 

Let  US  "  have  a  desire  that  this  day  may  come  quickly ; 
let  us  hasten  God  forward :  let  us  cry  unto  Him  day  and 
nigiit,  '  Most  merciful  Father,  T/uj  kingdom  come.'  St. 
Paul  saith,  '  The  Lord  will  not  come  till  the  swerving  from 
faith  Cometh'  (2  Thess.  2:  3),  which  thing  is  already  done 
and  past :  Antichrist  is  known  throughout  all  the  world. 
Wiiereforc  the  day  is  not  far  off.  Let  us  beware,  for  it  will 
one  day  fall  upon  our  heads.  St.  Peter  saith,  '  The  end  of 
all  things  draweth  very  near.'  St.  Peter  said  so  at  his 
time ;  how  much  more  shall  we  say  so !  for  it  is  a  long  time 
since  Peter  spake  these  words.  .  .  .  All  those  excellent 
learned  men,  which,  without  doubt,  God  hath  sent  into  this 
world  in  these  latter  days  to  give  the  world  warning,  all 
those  men  do  gather  out  of  Scripture  that  tlie  last  day  can- 
not lie  far  off." — Investigator,  vol.  i.,  p.  170. 

"  There  will  be  great  alterations  at  that  day;  .  .  there 
will  be  hurly-burly,  like  as  ye  see  when  a  man  dieth.  There 
will  be  such  alterations  of  the  earth  and  the  elements ;  they 
will  lose  their  former  nature,  and  be  endued  with  another 
nature.  And  then  shall  they  see  the  Son  of  man  come  in 
a  cloud  with  power  and  great  glory.  ...  I  pray  God  that 
we  may  be  of  the  number  of  those  who  shall  hear  this  joyful 
and  most  comfortable  voice  of  Christ  our  Saviour  whea  He 
26* 


306  ONE    HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

"will  say,  '  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  possess  the  king- 
dom which  is  prepared  for  you  before  the  foundation  of  the 
world  was  laid.'  .  .  .  That  man  or  that  Avoman  that  saith 
these  words,  'Thy  kingdom  come,'  with  a  faithful  heart,  no 
doubt  desireth,  in  very  deed,  that  God  will  come  to  judg- 
ment, and  Mncnd  all  things  in  this  world,  to  pull  down 
Satan,  that  old  serpent,  under  our  feet." — lb.,  p.  171. 

From  Bishop  Nicholas  Ridley. 

(Born  about  1500,  in  England,  and  burned  with  Latimer  in  1555.) 

"The  world,  without  doubt, —  this  I  do  believe,  and 
therefore  I  say  it, —  draws  towards  an  end.  Let  us,  with 
John,  the  servant  of  God,  cry  in  our  hearts  unto  our 
Saviour  Christ,  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come." — Lam.  on  the 
State  of  Religion. 

From  the  Holy  John  Bradford. 

(Burned  at  the  stake  with  John  Leafe,  a.  d.  1555.) 

Writing  to  a  friend  respecting  "the  earnest  expectation 
of  the  creature  "  (Rom.  8  :  19 — 23),  he  relates  his  own, 
and  "the  cogitation  of  one  who  Avas  my  father  in  the 
Lord,"  the  learned,  judicious,  and  pious  Martin  Bucer  — 
and  he  does  it, — 

"  Because  this  morning  I  had  some  knowledge,  more  than 
I  had  before,  that  my  life  stood  in  great  danger,  and  that 
even  this  week,  I  thought  good,  my  right  dearly  beloved  in 
the  Lord,  to  go  about  something  which  might  be,  on  my 
behalf,  a  swan's  song,*  and  towards  you  both  a  monument 
of  my  love,  and  also  a  help,  or,  at  least,  an  occasion  for  you 
to  profit  in  that  which  I  bear  you  record  you  most  desire  — 
I  mean  everlasting  life,  and  the  state  thereof.  I  therefore 
take  the  apostle  to  mean  by  'every  creature,'  simply,  even 
the  whole  shape  and  creatures  in  the  world.  ...  As 
everything  and  all  things  were  made  for  man,  so,  by  the 
man  Christ,  all  and  everything,  both  earthly  and  heavenly, 
shall  be  restored.  .  .  .  These  things  will  I  think  upon ; 
these  things  will  I  pause  upon ;  herein  will  I,  as  it  were, 

*  That  is,  which  might  be  a  special  comfort  to  him,  being  then  ready  to 
be  burned,  as  the  swan's  song  is  said  to  be  sweetest  a  little  before  his 
death. —  Letters  of  the  Martyrs. 


TESTIMONY   OF   ENGLISH    MARTYRS.  307 

drown  myself — being  careless  of  this  point,  I  mean  as  to 
wJiat  parts  of  the  world  the  Lord  Christ  will  restore 
unto  VIP.,  or  Itoic  He  will  do  it.  or  what  state  or  condition 
He  will  give  it.  It  is  enough  and  enough  for  me,  that 
I,  and  all  the  world  like  mc,  shall  be  much  more  happy 
than  I  ever  can  by  any  means  conceive.  .  .  .  This 
renovation  of  all  things  the  prophets  seem  to  promise 
when  they  promise  new  heaveiW  and  a  new  earth.  .  .  . 
Therefore,  mcthinks  it  is  the  duty  of  a  godly  mind  to 
acknowledge  and  thereof  to  glory  in  the  Lord,  that,  in 
our  resurrection,  all  things  aiiall  be  repaired  for  eternity, 
as,  from  our  sin,  they  were  made  subject  to  corruption. 

"  The  ancient  writers,  out  of  2  Pet.  3,  have,  ;is  it  were, 
agreed  to  this  sentence,  that  the  shape  of  this  world  shall 
pass  away  through  the  burning  of  earthly  fire,  as  it  was 
drowned  with  the  flowing  of  earthly  w'aters.  Tiiese  be  St. 
Augustine's  words,  that,  '  The  world  changing  into  the 
better,  may  openly  be  made  fit  for  man  when  returned  in 
the  flesh  into  the  better  state.'  Therefore,  it  is  the  part  of  a 
godly  man,  and  of  one  that  hangeth  in  all  things  upon  the 
word  of  God,  to  learn  out  of  this  place,  that  whatsoever 
corruption,  death,  or  grief,  he  seeth  in  anything,  whatsoever 
it  be,  that  he  ascribe  that  wholly  unto  his  sins,  and  thereby 
provoke  himself  to  true  repentance.  Now,  as  soon  as  that 
repentance  compelleth  him  to  go  to  Christ,  let  him  think 
thus :  But  this  my  Saviour  and  my  Head,  Jesus  Christ, 
died  for  my  sins,  and  therewith,  as  he  took  away  death,  so 
hath  he  taken  away  all  the  corruption  and  labor  of  all  things, 
and  will  restore  them  in  His  time,  wheresoever  they  be,  in 
heaven  or  in  earth.  Now,  every  creature  travaileth  and 
groaneth  with  us ;  but  we  being  restored,  they  also  shall  be 
restored :  there  shall  be  new  heavens,  new  earth,  and  all 
things  new."' — Bradford's  Letters  (83). 

From  Archbishop  Thomas  Cranmer. 

(Born  A.  P.  14S11,  in  England;    burnt  at  the  stake  in  155G.) 

[The  Catechism  drawn  up  by  the  English  prelates  in  the 
time  of  Edward  VI.,  and  authorized  by  that  king  May  20, 
1553, —  the  last  year  of  his  reign, —  was  acknowledged  by 
Cranmer  (Burnet's  Hist.  Vol.  iii.,  B.  4)  to  be  written  by 
himself  The  following  extracts  will  show  his  faith  respect- 
ing the  kingdom] : 


308  ONE   HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

"  Q.  How  is  that  petition,  Thy  kingdom,  come,  to  be 
understood  ?  / 

^^Ans.  We  ask  that  his  kingdom  may  come,  for  that  as 
yet  we  see  not  all  things  subject  to  Christ :  we  see  not  yet 
how  the  stone  is  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  human 
help,  which  breaks  into  pieces  and  reduceth  to  nothing  the 
image  described  by  Daniel :  or  how  the  only  rock,  which  is 
Christ,  doth  possess  and  obtain  the  empire  of  the  whole 
world  given  him  of  the  Father.  As  yet,  Antichrist  is  not 
slain ;  whence  it  is  that  we  desire  and  pray  that  at  length 
it  may  come  to  pass  and  be  fnlfilled ;  and  that  Christ  alone 
may  reign  with  his  saints,  according  to  the  divine  promises; 
and  that  he  may  live  and  have  dominion  in  the  world,  ac- 
cording to  the  decrees  of  the  holy  Gospel,  and  not  according 
to  the  traditions  and  laws  of  men,  and  the  wills  of  the 
tyrants  of  the  world. 

"Q.  God  grant  that  his  kingdom  may  come  most  speed- 
ily, &c.  ****** 

"Q.  The  sacred  Scripture  calls  the  end  of  the  world  the 
consummation  and  perfection  of  the  mystery  of  Christ,  and 
the  renovation  of  all  things :  for  thus  the  Apostle  Peter 
speaks  in  his  second  Epistle,  chap.  3 :  '  We  expect  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth,  according  to  God's  promise,  where- 
in dwelleth  righteousness.'  And  it  seems  agreeable  to 
reason,  that  the  corruption,  mutability,  and  sin,  to  which 
the  whole  world  is  subject,  should  at  least  cease.  Now,  by 
what  means,  or  ways  of  circumstances,  those  things  shall 
be  brought  to  pass,  I  desire  to  know  of  thee. 

'^^Ans.  I  will  declare  as  well  as  I  can,  the  same  apostle 
attesting.  The  heavens  in  the  manner  of  a  stormy  tempest 
shall  pass  away,  and  the  elements  estuating  shall  be  dis- 
solved, and  the  earth  and  the  works  therein  shall  be  burnt. 
As  if  the  apostle  should  say,  the  world,  like  as  we  see  in 
the  refining  of  gold,  shall  be  wholly  purged  with  fire,  and 
shall  be  brought  to  its  utmost  perfection ;  which  the  little 
world,  man,  imitating,  it  shall  likewise  be  freed  from  cor- 
ruption and  change.  And  so,  for  man's  sake,  for  whose  use 
the  great  world  was  created,  being  at  length  renovated  or 
made  new,  it  shall  put  on  a  face  that  shall  be  far  more 
pleasant  and  beautiful." — Brooks'  Essays,  pp.  12,  13. 


TESTIMONY    OF    ENGLISH    CHURCH    DIVINES.         309 


TESTIMONY    OF    OLD    ENGLISH    CHURCH    DIVINES. 

From  Bisuor  John  Davenant,  D.D. 

(Rom  A.  1).  1570,  in  London;  died  1G41.) 

"The  glory  of  Christians  is  to  be  expected  at  the  second 
coming  of  Christ,  wliose  day  will  arrive  both  suddenly  and 
quickly."  —  Voice  of  the  CImrcli,  p.  221. 

From  Archbishop  James  Usher,  D.D. 

(Bom  in  Ireland  a.  d.  1580;  died  16G5.) 

"  The  glorious  appearance  of  the  Son  of  God  in  the  latter 
day  shall  also  be  the  overthrow  of  Antichrist,  whence  we 
gather  that  before  the  last  day  he  shall  not  be  utterly  con- 
sumed."—  Body  of  Divinity,  chap,  xlv.,  p.  539. 

"  We  should  always  live  in  expectation  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
in  the  clouds,  with  oil  in  our  lamps,  prepared  for  his  com- 
ing."— From  Lon.  Q.  J.  of  Proph.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  317. 

From  the  Illustrious  Joseph  Mede,  D.D. 

(Bora  A.  D.  1586;  died  1G38.) 

"  The  rising  of  the  martyrs  is  that  which  is  called  the 
first  resurrection,  being,  as  it  seems,  a  prerogative  to  their 
suiferings  above  the  rest  of  the  dead,  who,  as  they  suffered 
with  Christ  in  the  time  of  His  patience,  so  should  they  be 
glorified  with  Him  in  the  reign  of  His  victory  before  the 
universal  resurrection  of  all.  '  Blessed  and  holy  is  he  that 
hath  part  in  the  first  resurrection;  for  on  such  the  second 
death  hath  no  power.'  .  .  .  Thus,  I  yet  admit  the  first 
resurrection  to  be  corporeal  as  well  as  the  second, — though 
I  confess  I  have  striven  much  against  it." — Letter  to  Mm. 
'l\cisse. 

From  Robert  Maton,  A.M. 

(Author  of  Israel's  Redemption,  published  1642.) 

"  When  our  Saviour  comes  to  reign  over  all  the  earth.  He 

comes  not  alone,  but  brings  all  the  saints  with  Him 

Which  words  ...  do  establish  the  literal  sense  of  the 
first  resurrection,  mentioned  in  the  20th  chapter  of  the  Rev- 
elation."— Lon.  Quar.  Jour,  of  Prophecy,  vol.  i.,  p.  91. 


310  one  hundred  witnesses. 

From  Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor,  D.  D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1C13;  died  in  1677.) 

"  The  resurrection  shall  be  universal :  good  and  bad  shall 
arise ;  yet  not  all  together,  but  first  Christ,  and  then  we 
that  are  Christ's :  and  then  there  is  another  resurrection, 
though  it  be  not  spoken  of  here.  Mj  text  speaks  only  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  just.  .  ,  .  '  The  dead  in  Christ 
shall  rise  first ; '  now  blessed  are  they  that  have  their  portion 
here :  for  upon  these  the  second  death  shall  have  no 
power." — Sermon  on  1  Cor.  15  :  23. 

From  the  learned  Tueophilus  Gale. 

(Eorn  A.  D.  1C28;  died  1G78.) 

'■  We  see  the  true  reason  why  so  many  professors,  and 
some  truly  godly,  are  so  far  behind  in  their  Christian  race, 
and  have  so  much  of  their  work  before  them.  .  .  .  Whence 
comes  all  this  but  from  want  of  serious,  lively  expectations 
of  their  Lord's  approach?  Believe  it,  there  is  a  deep  mys- 
terie,  a  spiritual  art  and  skil  in  godlinesse  which  none  arrive 
unto  so  soon  as  they  who  wait  for  the  coming  of  their  Lord. 
What  made  the  Thessalonians,  in  a  short  time,  to  arrive 
unto  such  high  pitches  of  Christianitie,  but  they  imbibed 
or  sucked  in,  at  their  first  conversion,  this  principle  of  wait- 
ing for  the  coming  of  their  Lord  (1  Thess.  1 :  10)?  and  0 
that  professors  would  trie  this  experiment !  Verily,  we 
should  not  have  such  complaints,  decays,  follies,  and  scan- 
dals, among  professors,  as  we  now  everywhere  find.  It  is  a 
sure  and  fixed  rule,  that  no  one  hath  made  a  further  pro- 
ficience  in  the  schole  of  Christ,  than  he  can  with  hope  and 
joy  expect  the  second  coming  of  Christ." — Discourse  on 
Christ's  Coming,  London,  1673;  copied  from  Lon.  Quar. 
Jour,  of  Proph.,  vol.  vii.,  p.  289. 

From  Thomas  Burnet,  D.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1C35;  died  1715.) 

"The  prophets,  both  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
have  left  us  their  predictions  concerning  neio  heavens  and 
a  new  earth.     So  says  the  prophet  Isaiah,  chap.  65 :  17. 


TESTIMONY   OF   ENGLISH    CHURCH   DIVINES.  311 

Behold  I  create  nev)  heavens  and  a  new  earth;  and  the 
former  shall  not  he  remembered,  or  come  into  mind;  as 
not  wortliy  our  thoughts,  in  comparison  of  those  that  will 
arise  when  these  pass  away.  So,  the  prophet  St.  John,  in 
his  Aporahjpse.  when  he  was  come  to  the  end  of  this  world, 
saj's,  And  I  saw  a  neic  heaven  and  a  new  earth:  for  the 
first  heaven  and  the  first  earth  were  passed  away,  and 
there  iras  no  more  sea  (Apoc.  21 :  1).  .  .  .  And.  in 
the  5th  verse,  he  that  sate  upon  the  throne  says,  Behold,  I 
make  all  things  neir:  which,  considered  with  the  antece- 
dents and  consec^uents,  cannot  be  otherwise  understood  than 
of  a  new  world. 

"  But  some  men  make  evasions  here,  as  to  the  words  of 
the  prophets,  and  say  they  are  to  be  understood  in  a  figu- 
rate  and  allegorical  sense ;  and  to  be  applied  to  the  times  of 
the  Gospel,  either  at  first,  or  towards  the  latter  end  of  the 
world;  so  as  this  new  heaven  and  new  enrth  signify  only 
a  great  change  in.the  moral  world.  But  Iioav  can  that  be, 
seeing  St.  John  places  them  after  the  end  of  the  world? 
and  the  prophet  Isaiah  connects  such  things  Avitli  his  new 
heavens  and  new  earth  as  are  not  compatible  to  tlie  present 
state  of  nature  (chap  'oh^.  However,  to  avoid  all  shufliing 
and  tergiversation  in  this  point,  let  us  appeal  to  St.  Peter, 
who  uses  a  plain,  literal  style,  and  discourses  downright 
concerning  the  natural  world.  In  his  2d  Epistle,  and  3d 
chapter,  when  he  had  foretold  and  explained  the  future  con- 
flagration, he  adds.  But  we  expect  new  heavens  and  a  new 
earth,,  according  to  his  promises.  These  pron'iises  were 
made  by  the  prophets;  and  this  gives  us  full  authority  to 
interpret  their  neir  heavens  and  ncu-  earth  to  be  after  the 
confiagration.  St.  Peter,  when  he  hail  described  the  disso- 
lution of  the  world  in  the  last  fire,  in  full  and  emphatical 
terms,  as  the  passing  away  of  the  heavens  with  a  noise; 
the  melting  of  the  elements,  and  bnrning  vp  all  the  works 
of  the  earth;  he  subjoins,  Nevej'theless  (notwithstanding 
this  total  dissolution  of  the  present  world),  ire,  according 
to  his  promises,  look  for  new  Jicavciis  and  a.  new  earth, 
wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  As  if  the  apostle  should 
have  said,  notwithstanding  this  strange  and  violent  dissolu- 
tion  of  the  present  heavens  and  earth,  which  I  have 
described  to  you,  we  do  not  at  all  distrust  God's  promises, 


312  OXE   nUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

concerning  new  heavens  and  a  new  earth,  that  are  to  succeed 
these,  and  to  be  the  seat  of  the  righteous." — Theory  of 
the  Earthy  vol.  ii.,  pp.  140,  141. 

From  Bishop  Joseph  Butler. 

(Bom  A.  D.  1692;  died  1752.) 

"  Things  of  this  kind  naturally  turn  the  thoughts  of  seri- 
ous men  towards  the  full  completion  of  the  prophetic  history 
concerning  the  final  restoration  of  that  people,  concerning 
the  establishment  of  the  everlasting  kingdom  among  them, 
the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah,  and  the  future  state  of  the 
world  under  this  sacred  government." — Analogy,  Part  ii., 
chap.  7. 

"  Since  they  (Christians)  are  not  already  invested  with 
that  degree  of  glory  that  will  be  communicated  to  them, 
they  could  not,  under  the  notion  of  members  of  that  king- 
dom, claim  any  earthly  dominion  before  the  glorious  reign 
of  Christ  shall  commence,  when  they  shall  indeed  reign 
with  Him  upon  the  earth." — Memoirs,  p.  298. 

From  Bishop  Thomas  Newton,  D.D. 

(Bom  A.  D.  1703,  in  England;   died  1784.) 

"With  what  propriety  can  it  be  said  that  some  of  the 
dead  who  were  beheaded  'lived  and  reigned  with  Christ  a 
thousand  years,  but  the  rest  of  the  dead  lived  not  again 
until  the  thousand  years  were  finished '  (Rev.  20 :  4,  5), 
unless  the  dying  and  living  again  be  the  same  in  both 
places,  a  proper  death  and  resurrection  ?  ...  If  the  mar- 
tyrs rise  only  in  a  spiritual  sense,  then  the  rest  of  the  dead 
rise  only  in  a  spiritual  sense;  but  if  tlte  rest  of  the  dead 
really  rise,  the  martyrs  rise  in  the  same  manner.  There  is 
no  difterence  between  them ;  and  we  should  be  cautious  and 
tender  of  making  the  first  resurrection  an  allegory., lest 
others  should  reduce  the  second  into  an  allegory  too,  like 
those  whom  St.  Paul  mentions  (2  Tim.  2 :  17,  18),  '  Hy- 
meneus  and  Philetus.  who,  concerning  the  truth,  have  erred, 
saying  that  the  resurrection  is  past  already,  and  overthrow 
the  faith  of  some.'  It  is  to  this  first  resurrection  that  St. 
Paul  alludes,  when  he  afiirms  (1  Thess.  4 :  16)  that  '  the 
dead  in   Christ  shall  rise  first,'  and  (1  Cor.  15 :  23)  that 


TESTIMONY    OF    ENGLISH    CHURCH   DIVINES.         313 

'  every  man  shall  be  made  alive  in  his  own  order ;  Christ 
the  first  fruits,  afterwards  they  that  are  Chrisfs  at  his  com- 
ing, and  then  cometh  the  end,'  after  the  general  resur- 
rection. 

"  In  the  general,  that  there  shall  be  such  a  happy  period 
as  the  Millennium,  that  '  the  kingdom  and  dominion,  and 
the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under  the  Avliole  heaven,  shall 
be  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the  ]\Iost  High  '  (Dan. 
7 :  27),  that  Christ  shall  have  '  the  heathen  for  his  inher- 
itance, and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  his  posses- 
sion' (Psal.  2:  8).  that  ^  the  earth  shall  be  full  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Lord,  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea'  (Isai. 
11:  9),  'that  the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  in, 
and  all  Israel  shall  be  saved '  (Rom.  11 :  25,  26).  in  a 
word,  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  shall  be  established  upon 
earth,  is  the  plain  and  express  doctrine  of  Daniel  and  all  the 
prophets,  as  Avell  as  of  St.  John :  and  we  daily  pray  for  the 
accomplishment  of  it,  in  praying  Thy  kingdom  come. 
But  of  all  the  prophets,  St.  John  is  the  only  one  who  hath 
declared  particularly,  and  in  express  terms,  that  the  mar- 
tyrs shall  rise  to  partake  of  the  felicities  of  this  kingdom, 
and  that  it  shall  continue  upon  earth  a  thousand  years:  and 
the  Jewish  church  before  him,  and  the  Christian  church 
after  him,  have  further  believed  and  taught  that  these 
thousand  years  will  be  the  seventh  Millenary  of  the  world. 
A  pompous  heap  of  quotations  might  be  produced  to  this 
purpose,  both  from  Jewish  and  Christian  writers." — Dis- 
sertations on  Proph.,  p.  587. 

From  ARcnBisuop  William  Newcome,  D.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1729,  in  England;  died  1800.) 

"I  understand  this  (Rev.  20:  4)  not  figuratively  of  a 
peaceable  and  flourishing  state  of  the  church  on  earth,  but 
literally  of  a  real  resurrection,  and  of  a  real  reign  with 
Christ,  who  will  display  his  royal  glory  in  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem. This  is  the  great  Sabbatism,  or  rest  of  the  church." 
— Bickersteth^ s  Dissertations  on  Prophecy^  p.  106. 

27 


314  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

Among  the  writers  of  this  period,  the  most  distinguished 
philosopher  of  his  times  is  worthy  of  a  place  : 

Testimony  of  Sir  Isaac  Newton. 

(Born  A.  D.  1642;   died    1727.) 

"As  the  few  and  obscure  prophecies  concerning  Christ's 
first  coming  were  for  setting  up  the  Christian  religion, 
which  all  nations  have  since  corrupted ;  so,  the  many  and 
clear  prophecies  concerning  the  things  to  be  done  at  His 
second  coming  are  not  only  for  predicting,  but  also  for 
eflfecting,  a  recovery  and  establishment  of  the  long-lost 
truth,  and  setting  up  a  kingdom  wherein  dwelleth  right- 
eousness." 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  "WESTMINSTEK  ASSEMBLY'S 
DIVINES. 

This  Assembly  was  called  by  Parliament  for  the  purpose 
of  settling  the  government,  liturgy,  and  doctrine  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  it  met  July  1,  1643.  "  The  di- 
vines were  men  of  eminent  learning  and  godliness,  ministe- 
rial abilities,  and  fidelity.  ]\Iany  lords  and  commons  were 
joined  with  them,  to  see  that  they  did  not  go  beyond  their 
commission.  Six  or  seven  Independents  were  also  added 
to  them,  that  all  sides  might  be  heard." —  (^Art.  En.  of  Rel. 
K/wwl.)  In  the  "  Shorter  Catechism"  is  their  exposition 
of  the  Lord's  Prayer;  and,  on  the  words  "Thy  kingdom 
come,"  we  have  as  follows  : 

"  In  the  second  petition  we  pray  that  Satan's  kingdom 
may  be  destroyed,  and  that  the  kingdom  of  grace  may  be 
advanced,  ourselves  and  others  brought  into  it,  and  that  the 
kingdom  of  rjlory  may  he  hastened;  " 

Which  is  explained,  in  the  corresponding  clause  of  the 
larger  Catechism,  thus  : 

"  We  pray  that  Christ  would  hasten  the  time  of  His 
second  coming,  and  our  reigning  with  Him  forcA^er." 

That  this  was  designed  to  be  understood  in  a  Mil- 
lenarian  sense,  is  evident  from  the  admitted  Millenarian 
tendencies  of  a  majority  of  those  who  were  there  assem- 
bled.   Principal  Baillie,  a  determined  anti-Millenarian,  and, 


WESTMINSTER   ASSEMBLY'S   DIVINES.  315 

therefore,  not  likely  to  exaggerate  their  numbers,  said  of 
them  : 

"The  inost  of  the  chief  divines  here,  not  only  Independ- 
ents, but  others,  such  as  Twisse,  ^Marshall,  Palmer,  and 
many  more,  arc  express  Chiliasts.''" — Letters^  No.  117. 

"  Besides  the  three  above  mentioned,  the  following  mem- 
bers of  that  assembly  arc  known,  likewise,  by  their  pub- 
lished writings,  or  sentiments,  to  have  been  Millenarian, 
viz.:  Simeon  Ash,  of  St.  Bride's:  W.  Bridge,  A.M. ;  Jere- 
miah Burroughs,  A.M. ;  J.  Carlyle,  A.M. ;  T.  Goodwin, 
D.D. ;  W.  Gouge,  D.D. :  J.  Langley,  Prebendary  of  Glou- 
cester; and  Peter  Sterry,  of  London.'' — Brooks'  El.  Pro. 
In.  {Liicralist),  p.  72. 

From  William  Twisse,  D.D. 

(Tlio  .Moderator  of  the  Westminster  Assembly.) 

He  Avrote  to  Mr.  jMede,  his  instructor  in  theology : 
"  0,  Mr.  Mede,  I  would  willingly  spend  all  my  days  in 
hanging  on  your  lips ....  to  hear  you  discourse  upon  the 
glorious  kingdom  of  Christ  here  on  earth,  to  begin  wiUi  the 
ruin  of  Antichrist." — Mcdes  Work\s,  p.  8-45. 

From  Jeremiah  Burroughs,  D.D. 

"  If  3^ou  ask  me  when  shall  these  things  be?  when  shall 
Jerusalem  be  made  the  praise  of  the  whole  earth?  it  is 
very  hard  to  determine  the  particular  time,  but  surely  at 
the  end  of  Antic/iri.st  s  rcirjn  it  must  be.  And  how  long 
Antichrist  shall  reign,  that  we  know  certainly ;  the  only 
difficulty  is  to  reckon  tlie  very  time  of  the  beginning  of  his 
reign.  He  shall  reign  for  12G0  yeare ;  and  we  have  such 
parallel  Scriptures  for  this,  that  there  is  nothing  more  evi- 
dent, and  generally  divines  agree  upon  it There  will 

be  no  certainty  nor  sottlcdness  of  things  till  Jerusalem  come 
to  be  made  as  the  praise  of  the  earth.  There  will  attend  afllic- 
tiou  to  the  people  of  God,  yea,  and  to  others  too ;  yea,  and 
there  is  a  curse  upon  men's  spirits  which  will  not  be  taken 
off  till  this  time  come." — Quoted  from  Voice  of  the 
Church,  p.  194. 


316  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 


From  Peter  Sterry. 

"  The  subject  (which  is  the  reign  of  our  Saviour  with  His 
saints  on  the  earth)  is  of  a  transcendent  glory  in  itself,  of  a 
universal  consequence  to  all  persons  and  states,  and  of  very 
great  reasonableness  for  present  times.  Like  a  piece  of  rich 
coin,  it  hath  long  been  buried  in  the  earth ;  but  of  late  days, 
digged  up  again,  it  begins  to  grow  bright  with  handling, 
and  to  pass  current  with  great  numbers  of  saints,  and  learned 
men  of  great  authority.  As  the  same  star  at  different  sea- 
sons is  the  evening  star,  setting  immediately  after  the  sun, 
and  then  the  morning  star,  shining  immediately  before  it ; 
so  was  this  truth  the  evening  star  to  the  first  coming  of 
Christ,  setting  together  Avith  the  glory  of  that  day  in  a 
night  of  anti-Christianism ;  and  now  it  appears  again  in  our 
own  times,  as  a  morning  star  to  that  blessed  day  of  the 
second  effusion  of  tlie  Spirit,  and  the  second  appearance  of 
our  Saviour  in  the  glory  of  the  Father." — Quoted  from  the 
Lon.  Q.  J.  of  Prophecy^  vol.  iv.,  p.  316. 

From  Thomas  Goodw^in,  D.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1600;  died  1679.) 

"This  ["We  shall  reign  on  the  earth"]  comforted  the 
saints  of  old,  even  the  consideration  of  Christ's  kingdom  on 
earth.  And  how  peremptory  are  they !  They  mention 
that  because  that  is  the  end  and  scope  of  the  Revelation,  and 
the  conclusion  of  this  book,  when  the  seals  are  off,  and  the 
contents  of  the  book  accomplished,  and,  therefore,  they  have 
that  in  their  eye.  And  seeing  Christ  undertakes  the  accom- 
plishment of  all,  whereof  this  is  the  issue,  they  are  confirmed 
in  the  faith  of  it. 

"  This  kingdom  of  Christ  on  earth  to  come  is  a  fixr  more 
glorious  condition  for  the  saints  than  what  their  souls  have 
now  in  heaven :  for  these  here  overlook  that  condition  which 
yet  they  were  to  run  through ;  and  their  thoughts  fly  to  this 
for  comfort." — Com.  on  Rev.  5:  10. 

"  Let  an  indefinite  warning  that  these  things  are  approach- 
ing, and  we  Avithin  the  reach  of  them,  sufiice  for  to  move  us 
to  prepare  for  them,  which  is  the  only  use  of  knowing  them. 
.  .  .  And,  although  we  may  think  this  dismal  and  black  cloud 
of  temptation  not  likely  to  come  so  soon,  seeing  the  clouds  rise 


TESTIMONY    OF    OLD    ENGLISH    DISSENTERS.  317 

not  fast  enough  so  suddenly  to  overcast  the  face  of  the  sky 
■with  darkness,  yet  we  are  to  consider  that  we  live  now  in 
the  extremity  of  times,  when  motions  and  alterations,  being 
so  near  the  centre,  become  quickest  and  speediest ;  and  we 
arc  at  the  verge,  and,  as  it  were,  witliin  the  whirl  of  that 
great  mystery  of  Christ's  kingdom,  which  will,  as  a  gulf, 
swallow  up  all  time :  and  so  the  nearer  we  arc  unto  it,  the 
greater  and  more  sudden  changes  will  Clirist  make,  now 
hasting  to  make  a  full  end  of  alt" — Ex.  of  Apoc,  p.  190. 

testimony  of  old  english  dissenters. 
Fkom  a.  Grosse. 

(Pastor  of  Bridford,  A.  D.  1647.) 

"No  man  rightly  desires  Christ's  coming,  but  he  that 
hath  assurance  of  the  good  and  lienefit  of  His  coming.  To 
them  the  day  of  Christ  is  as  the  day  of  harvest  to  the  hus- 
bandman, as  the  day  of  deliverance  to  the  prisoner,  as  the 
day  of  coronation  to  the  king,  as  the  day  of  wedlock  to  the 
bride, —  a  day  of  triumph  and  exaltation,  a  day  of  freedom 
and  consolation,  a  day  of  rest  and  satisfaction ;  to  them  the 
Lord  Jesus  is  all  sweetness,  as  wine  to  the  palate,  and  oint- 
ment to  the  nostril,  saith  Solomon  ;  honey  in  the  mouth, 
saith  Bernard :  music  in  the  ear,  and  a  jubilee  in  the  heart. 
Get  assurance  of  Christ's  coming,  as  a  ransonier  to  redeem 
you,  as  a  conqueror  to  subdue  all  your  enemies  under  you, 
as  a  friend  to  comfort  you,  as  a  king  to  honor  you,  as  a 
physician  to  heal  you,  as  a  bridegroom  to  marry  you,  and 
then  shall  you  Avith  confidence  and  boldness,  with  joy  and 
gladness,  with  vehement  and  holy  longings,  say,  '  Come 
Lord  Jesus.'" — Lou.  Q.  J.  of  Prophecy,  p.  194,  A.  D. 
1855. 

From  '•  Sweet  Old  John  Durant." 

"  I  have  heard  of  a  poor  man  who.  it  seems,  loved  and 
longed  for  Christ's  appearance,  that  when  there  was  a  great 
eartlu^uake,  and  when  many  cried  out  the  day  of  judgment 
was  come,  and  one  cried,  '  Alas  !  alas  !  what  shall  I  do  ?  '  and 
a  third,  '  How  sliall  I  hide  myself? '  &c.,  that  poor  man  only 
said,  'Ah  !  is  it  so?  Is  the  day  come?  Where  shalllgo? 
Upon  what  mountain  shall  I  stand  to  sec  my  Saviour?'  "* 

*  CAr/.t/'s  Appearance  the  Second  Time  for  the  Salvation  of  Believers, 

I6r>.s.  27* 


818  ONE    HUNDRED  WITNESSES. 

"0  how  glorious  •will  that  salvation  be,  vhen  all  the 
heirs  of  salvation  shall  meet  together  !  Now,  all  are  not 
saved ;  the  whole  body  now  is  in  trouble  for  a  part.  TJteti 
all  the  children  of  the  Father  shall  tneet  together  in  their 
Father's  presence ;  they  shall  come  from  the  east  and  west, 
from  north  and  south,  and  sit  down  in  that  kingdom ;  yea, 
and  then  all  saints  shall  be  sweetly  conjoined.  Jewels  scat- 
tered are  not  so  resplendent ;  but  joined  in  some  rich  pen- 
dent, 0  how  glorious  are  they  !  In  that  day  Christ  will 
gather  up  all  his  jewels  —  he  will  bring  in  every  saint  into 
one — gather  them  into  one  great  jewel,  one  precious 
j)endent,  which  shaU  jointly  lie  in  his  ou-n  bosom.  Now 
a  saved  soul  sighs  and  cries,  Where  is  Israel?  —  where  is 
Judah?  When  will  the  Lord  save  them?  Why,  poor 
hearts,  yoit  shall  all  meet  at  that  day  —  be  saved  with  an 
universal  salvation ;  and  so  be  all  of  you  with  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  the  patriarchs,  prophets  —  all  the 
apostles  and  martyrs ;  yea,  all  that  fear  God,  small  as  well 
as  great.  All,  always,  altogether  in  the  presence  of  your 
Saviour  !  —  surely,  then,  you  will  say,  that  salvation  is  very 
sweet.  Not  one  saint  shall  be  missing  in  that  day;  but 
all  shall  altogether  meet,  and  enjoy  the  salvation  of  Christ 
then,  so  universal  shall  it  be." 

"Our  blessed  Lord  spoke  of  false  Christs  and  false 
prophets,  and  their  prevailing  deceits,  as  a  sign  of  his  coming 
again.  Though  I  am  sorry,  and  who  is  not  that  believes 
truth,  that  there  have  been  so  many  diverse  heresies 
broached  in  these  latter  days,  as  was  foretold ;  yet  I  rejoice 
in  this,  that  they  are  a  sign  of  the  last  days  being  at  hand." 
—  Quoted  from  the  Lon.  Q.  J.  of  Prophecy,  vol.  vi., 
p.  203. 

Feom  Thomas  Vincent. 

"  We  live  in  the  end  of  the  world,  in  the  old  age  thereof. 
.  .  .  We  are  come  not  only  to  the  declining  years,  but  also 
to  the  decrepid  age  of  the  world.  And  if  the  Lord  Jesus 
were  to  come  shortly,  in  the  days  of  the  apostles,  much  more 
shortly  will  he  come  now,  when  so  many  years  are  past 
since  the  Scriptures  were  writ,  and  these  things  foretold." — 
Se7'mon  on  the  Plague,  A.  D.  1666. 


testimony  of  old  english  dissenters.       319 
From  Thomas  Watson. 

(Who  died  A.  D.  1G73.) 

The  judgment  "cannot  be  fivr  off.  When  the  elect  are 
all  converted,  then  Christ  will  come  to  judgment." 

'•  'He  that  sat  upon  the  throne  said,  Behold  I  make  all 
things  new.'  How  imjircssive  and  sublime  is  the  scene  thus 
presented  !  Under  the  throne  of  him  Avho  is  arrayed  in  the 
glory  of  the  Father  lie  heaven  and  earth,  the  present  seat 
of  death,  sorrow,  and  pain.  He  speaks,  and  they  vanish, 
and  '  the  former  things  are  passed  away.'  He  speaks  again, 
and  a  new  heaven  and  earth  spring  into  being ;  '  The  t;iber- 
nacle  of  God  is  Avith  men : '  and  he  that  sittcth  upon  the 
throne  saith,  'Behold,  I  make  all  things  new.'  What  a 
dream  will  then  our  earthly  sufferings  and  labors,  our  joys 
and  our  sorrows,  appear  !  They  iiave  passed  away,  and  a 
new  world  opens  to  our  view,  to  abide  forever." 

From  Richard  Baxter. 

(Born  A.  D.  Ifil5  ;   died  1G9L) 

"AVould  it  not  rejoice  your  hearts  if  you  were  sure  to 
live  to  sec  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  to  see  His  glorious 
appearing  and  retinue  ?  If  you  were  not  to  die,  but  to  be 
caught  up  thus  to  meet  the  Lord,  would  you  be  averse  to 
this  ?  Would  it  not  be  the  greatest  joy  that  you  could  de- 
sire ?  For  my  own  part,  I  must  confess  to  you  that  death, 
as  death,  appeareth  to  me  as  an  enemy,  and  my  nature  doth 
abhor  and  fear  it.  But  the  thouiihts  of  the  cominti;  of  the 
Lord  are  most  sweet  and  joyful  to  me,  so  that  if  I  were  but 
sure  that  I  should  live  to  see  it,  and  that  the  trumpet  should 
sound,  and  the  dead  should  rise,  and  the  Lord  appear,  be- 
fore the  period  of  my  age,  it  would  be  the  joyfullest  tidings 
to  me  in  the  world.  0  that  I  might  see  His  kingdom 
come  !  It  is  the  character  of  His  saints  to  love  His  appear- 
ing, and  to  look  for  that  blessed  hope ;  '  The  Spirit  and  the 
bride  say  come :  even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus.'  Come  quickly, 
is  the  voice  of  faith,  and  hope,  and  love.  ButI  find  not  that 
His  servants  are  thus  characterized  by  their  desire  to  die. 
It  is  therefore  the  presence  of  their  Lord  that  they  desire,  but 
it  is  death  that  they  abhor  :  and  therefore,  though  they  can 
submit  to  death,  it  is  the  coming  of  Christ  that  they  love 
and  long  for.     If  death  be  the  last  enemy  to  be  destroyed 


820  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

at  the  resurrection,  "we  may  learn  how  earnestly  believers 
should  long  and  pray  for  the  second  coming  of  Christ, 
when  this  full  and  final  conquest  shall  be  made.  There  is 
something  in  death  that  is  penal,  even  to  believers ;  but  in 
the  coming  of  Christ  and  their  resurrection  there  is  nothing 
but  glorifying  grace." —  Works,  vol.  xvii.,  p.  555 — 590. 

"  Though  I  have  not  skill  enough  in  the  exposition  of 
hard  prophecies  to  make  a  particular  determination  about 
the  thousand  years'  reign  of  Christ  on  earth  before  the  final 
judgment,  yet  I  may  say  that  I  cannot  confute  what  such 
learned  men   as  Mr.  Mede,  Dr.  Twiss,  and  others  (after  the 

old  FatTiers),  have  hereof  asserted But  I  believe  there 

will  be  a  new  heaven  and  earth,  in  which  will  dwell  right- 
eousness."—  lb.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  513;  Lou.  Qiiar.  Jour,  of 
Proph.,  vol.  ii.,  115. 

"  Hasten,  0  my  Saviour,  the  time  of  thy  return  ;  send 
forth  thine  angels,  and  let  that  dreadful,  joyful  trumpet 
sound  :  delay  not,  lest  the  living  give  up  their  hopes :  de- 
lay not,  lest  earth  should  grow  like  hell,  and  lest  thy 
church,  by  division,  be  crumpled  all  to  dust,  and  dissolved, 
by  being  resolved  into  individual  units :  delay  not,  lest 
thine  enemies  get  advantage  of  thy  flock,  and  lest  pride, 
and  hypocrisy,  and  sensuality,  and  unbelief,  should  prevail 
against  thy  little  remnant,  and  share  among  them  thy 
whole  inheritance,  and  when  thou  comest  thou  find  not 
faith  on  the  earth  :  delay  not,  lest  the  grave  should  boast  of 
victory;  and  having  learned  rebellion  of  its  guest,  should 
plead  prescription,  and  refuse  to  deliver  thee  up  thy  due. 
0,  hasten  that  great  resurrection-day,  when  thy  command 
shall  go  forth,  and  none  shall  disobey ;  when  the  sea  and 
earth  shall  yield  up  their  hostages,  and  all  that  sleep  in  the 
grave  shall  awake,  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall  first  arise ; 
when  the  seed  that  thou  .sowest  corruptible  shall  come 
forth  incorruptible  ;  and  graves  that  received  but  rottenness, 
and  retained  but  dust,  shall  return  thee  glorious  stars  and 
suns.  Therefore,  dare  I  lay  down  my  carcass  in  the  dust, 
intrusting  it,  not  to  a  grave,  but  to  Thee ;  and  therefore 
my  flesh  shall  rest  in  hope,  till  thou  raise  it  to  the  posses- 
sion of  the  everlasting  rest.  Return,  0  Lord!  how  long? 
0,  let  thy  kingdom  come  !  Thy  desolate  bride  saith,  come; 
for  thy  Spirit  within  her  saith,  come,  who  teacheth  her  thus 


TESTIMONY    OF    OLD    ENGLISH    DISSENTERS.  321 

to  pray  with  groanings  after  thee,  which  cannot  be  expressed : 
the  whole  creation  saith,  come. —  waiting  to  be  delivered  from 
the  bondage  of  corruption,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the 
sons  of  God ;  thyself  hath  said :  Surely  I  come  quickly. 
Amen.     Even  so,  come,  Lord  Jesus." — lb. 

"  This  end  is  not  far  off.  "We  have  but  a  little  while  to 
wait,  and  we  shall  see  the  Lord  upon  the  throne  of  his 
glory,  and  see  the  accomplishment  of  his  promise  to  his 
saints ;  for  yet  a  little  while,  and  he  that  comctli  will  come 
and  Avill  not  tarry.  It  is  many  ages  since  the  apostle  said 
the  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand." —  Treatise  on  Conver- 
sion. 

From  Josepu  Alleine. 

(Born  A.  D.  1G23,  England;  died  1068.) 

In  a  letter  written  from  his  prison  in  Ilchcster  jail,  for 
preaching  the  Gospel  in  his  own  house,  to  his  flock  in 
Taunton,  he  said : 

"  If  Paul  do  call  upon  so  great  an  Evangelist  as  Timo- 
thy, to  remember  that  Jesus  iras  raised  fro7n  the  dead 
according  to  the  Gospel,  why  should  not  I  be  often  calling 
upon  myself,  and  upon  you,  my  dearly  beloved,  to  remem- 
ber and  meditate  upon,  and  closely  apply,  the  great  and 
weighty  truths  of  the  Gospel,  which  you  have  already  re- 
ceived ?  .  .  .  But  I  shall  not,  witli  Paul,  call  upon  you  so 
much  to  remember  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  as  the  return 
of  Christ :  Behold  he  comet h  in  the  clouds,  and  every 
eye  shall  see  him ;  your  eyes  and  mine  eyes.  And  all  the 
tribes  of  the  earth  shall  mourn  because  of  him.  But  we 
shall  lift  up  our  heads,  because  the  day  of  our  redemption 
drawcth  nigh.  This  is  the  day  I  look  for,  and  wait  for, 
and  have  laid  up  all  my  hopes  in.  If  the  Lord  return  not, 
I  jn-ofess  myself  undone :  my  preaching  is  vain,  and  my 
suffering  is  vain ;  and  the  bottom  in  which  I  have  intrusted 
all  my  hopes  is  forever  miscarried.  But  I  know  whom  I 
have  trusted.  We  have  built  upon  the  foundations  of  that 
sure  word :  we  are  not  built  upon  the  sand  of  mortality. 
Nor  do  we  so  run  as  uncertainly ;  but  the  word  of  the 
Lord  abidcth  forever,  upon  which  word  do  we  hope.  How 
fully  doth  this  word  assure  us  that  this  same  Jesus  that  is 
gone  up  into  heaven  shall  so  return,  and  that  He  shall  ap- 


322 


ONE    HUNDRED    WIT2s^ESSES. 


pear  the  second  time  unto  salvation  to  tliem  that  look  for 
Him.  0,  how  sure  is  the  tiling!  How  near  is  the  time  ! 
How  glorious  will  His  appearing  be  ! 

"  The  thing  is  sure  ;  the  day  is  set ;  God  hath  appointed 
a  day  wherein  He  will  judge  the  world  by  that  Man  whom 
He  hath  ordained.  The  manner  of  it  is  revealed  —  Behold 
the  Lord  cometh  'with  ten  thousand  of  his  saints.  The 
attendants  are  appointed  and  nominated  —  The  Son  of 
Man  shall  come  in  His  glory,  and  all  His  holy  angels 
with  Him.  The  thing,  you  see,  is  established,  and  every 
circumstance  is  determined.  How  sweet  are  the  words  that 
dropped  from  the  precious  lips  of  our  departing  Lord  !  What 
generous  cordials  hath  He  left  us  in  His  parting  sermons, 
and  His  last  prayer  !  And  yet  of  all  the  rest  these  are  the 
sweetest,  /  7cill  come  again  and  receive  you  to  myself, 
that  where  I  am  there  you  may  be  also.  What  need  you 
any  further  witness?" — Duff's  Life  of  Alleine,  p.  217. 

"And  ivill  become?  Tremble,  then,  ye  sinners;  but  tri- 
umph, ye  saints  !  Clap  your  hands,  all  ye  that  look  for  the 
consolation  of  Israel !  0  children  of  the  Most  High,  how 
will  you  forget  your  travail,  and  be  melted  into  joy  !  This 
is  he  in  whom  you  have  believed  ;  whom,  not  having  seen, 
ye  have  loved.  0  my  soul,  look  out  and  long  !  0  my 
brethren,  be  you  as  the  mother  of  Sisera,  looking  out  at 
the  windows,  and  watching  at  the  lattice,  saying  Why  are  his 
chariot-ioheels  so  long  in  coming?  Though  the  time  till 
ye  shall  see  him  be  very  short,  yet  love  and  longing  make  it 
seem  tedious.  My  beloved,  comfort  your  hearts  with  these 
wox-ds  :  look  upon  these  things  as  the  greatest  realities,  and 
let  your  aifections  be  answerable  to  your  expectations.  I 
would  not  have  told  you  these  things  unless  I  had  believed 
them  ;  it  is  for  this  hope  that  I  am  bound  with  this  chain. 
The  blessing  of  the  Holy  Trinity  be  upon  you,  &c."  — 
Elements  of  Projjhetic  Interpretation,  p.  76. 

On  his  death-bed,  wdien  he  looked  on  his  weak,  consumed 
hands,  he  would  say  : 

' '  These  shall  be  changed  :  this  vile  body  shall  be  made 
like  to  Christ's  glorious  body.  0,  what  a  glorious  day 
will  the  day  of  the  resurrection  be  !  Methinks  I  see  it  by 
faith.  How  will  the  saints  lift  up  their  heads  and  rejoice  ; 
and  how  sadly  will  this  wicked  world  look  then  !     0,  come, 


TESTIMONY   OF   OLD    ENGLISH   DISSENTERS.  323 

let  US  make  haste ;  our  Lord  will  come  shortly,  let  us  pre- 
pare ! '" — Duff's  Life  of  J^eine^  p.  103. 

From  James  Janeway. 

(AVho  died  1CT4.) 

"  Of  this  I  am  confident,  through  infinite  mercy,  that 
the  very  meditation  of  that  day  hath  ever  ravished  my  soul ; 
and  tlic  thought  of  the  certainty  and  nearness  of  it  is  more 
refreshing  to  me  than  the  comforts  of  the  woild.''  —  Qiiolcd 
frum  Voice  of  the  ChiircJi.,  p.  180. 

From  Stephen  Charnock,  D.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1028,  in  London;  died  1080.) 

"As  the  world,  for  the  sin  of  man,  lost  its  first  dignity,  and  was 
cursed  after  the  fall,  and  the  beauty  bestowed  on  it  by  creation 
defaced,  so  shall  it  recover  that  ancient  glory,  when  he  shall 
be  luUy  restored,  by  the  resurrection,  to  tliat  dignity  he  lost 
l)y  liis  first  sin.  As  man  shall  be  freed  from  his  corrupti- 
bility, to  receive  that  glory  which  is  prepared  for  him,  so 
shall  the  creatures  be  freed  from  that  imperfection  or  cor- 
ruptibility, those  stains  and  spots  upon  the  face  of  them, 
to  receive  a  new  glory  suited  to  their  nature,  and  answera- 
ble to  the  design  of  God,  when  the  '  glorious  liberty '  of  the 
saints  shall  be  accomplished." —  Attribitfes  of  God. 

"  As  when  (see  Mestrazat  on  lleb.  1)  a  prince's  nuptials 
are  solemnized,  the  whole  country  echoes  with  joy,  so  the 
inanimate  creatures,  when  the  time  of  the  marriage  of  the 
Lamb  is  come,  shall  have  a  delight  and  pleasure  from  that 
renovation.  The  apostle  sets  forth  the  whole  irorhl  as  a  per- 
son fjroaiiinfj,  and  the  Scriptures  are  fre<iuent  in  sucli  meta- 
phors, as  when  the  creatures  are  said  to  '  wait  upon  God  and 
to  be  troulih'd;*  the  hills  are  said  to  'leap,  and  the  mountains 
rejoice.'  (Psalm  104,  27:  29.)  The  earth  hath  borne 
thorns  and  thistles,  and  venomous  beasts ;  the  air  hath  had 
its  tempest  and  infectious  qualities  ;  the  water  hath  caused 
its  fioods  and  deluges ;  the  creature  hath  been  abased  to  luxury 
and  intemperance,  and  been  tyrannized  over  in  man,  contrary 
to  the  end  of  its  creation.  "T  is  convenient  that  some  time 
should  be  allotted  for  the  creature's  attaining  its  true  end, 


324  ONE    HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

and  that  it  may  partake  of  the  peace  of  man,  as  it  hath  done 
of  the  fruits  of  his  sin,  ^vhich  pi-evailed  more  than  grace,  and 
AYould  have  had  more  power  to  deface  than  grace  to  restore 
things  into  their  due  order."  —  lb. 

From  John  Howe,  A.M. 

(Born  A  D.  1630,  in  London;  died  1705.) 

"  Nor  will  the  time  of  expectation  be  long  when  I  shall 
awake  —  when  he  shall  appear, —  put  it  to  the  longest  term. 
It  was  said,  sixteen  hundred  years  ago,  to  be  but  '  a  little 
while.'  Three  times  over,  in  the  shutting  up  of  the  Bible,  he 
tells  us  I  come  quickly." — Woi-ks,  vol.  i.,  p.  263. 

From  Matthew  Henry. 

(The  commentator,  born  A.  D.  1CC2;  died  1714.) 

"  By  the  creature  here  we  understand,  not,  as  some  do, 
the  Gentile  world,  and  their  expectation  of  Christ  and  the 
Gospel,  which  is  an  exposition  very  foreign  and  forced ;  but 
the  whole  frame  of  nature,  especially  that  of  this  lower 
world  ;  the  whole  creation,  the  compages  of  inanimate  and 
sensible  creatures ;  which,  because  of  their  harmony  and 
mutual-  dependence,  and  because  they  all  constitute  and 
make  up  one  world,  are  spoken  of  in  the  singular  number, 
as  the  creature.  The  creature  that  is  now  thus  burdened 
shall  at  the  time  of  the  restitution  of  all  things  he  delivered 
from  this  bondarje  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God^  verse  21 ;  that  is,  they  shall  no  more  be  subject  to 
vanity  and  corruption,  and  the  other  fruits  of  the  curse ; 
but,  on  the  contraiy,  this  lower  world  shall  be  renewed ; 
when  there  will  be  new  heavens,  there  will  be  a  new  earth, 
2  Pet.  3  :  13  ;  Rev.  21  :  1 ;  and  there  shall  be  a  glory  con- 
ferred upon  all  the  creatures,  which  shall  be  (in  the  proportion 
of  their  natures)  as  suitable,  and  as  great  an  advancement, 
as  the  glory  of  the  children  of  God  shall  be  to  them.  The 
creature  doth  therefore  earnestly  expect  and  wait  for  the 
manifestation  of  the  children  of  God,  verse  19.  At  the 
second  coming  of  Christ  there  will  be  a  manifestation  of  the 
children  of  God.  And  this  redemption  of  the  creature  is 
reserved  till  then;  for  as  it  was  with  man  and   for  man 


TESTIMONY    OF    OLD    ENGLISH   DISSENTERS.  325 


that  they  fell  under  the  curse,  so  with  man  and  for  man 
they  shall  be  delivered.  All  the  curse  and  filth  that  now 
adheres  to  the  creature  shall  be  done  away  then,  when 
those  that  have  sufi'ered  with  Christ  upon  earth  shall  reign 
with  him  upon  earth." —  Com.  on  Horn,  8  :  19 — 28. 

Trom  George  Benson,  D.D, 

(Born  A.  D.  IGO'J;  died  in  17C2.) 

"  Here  we  have  the  subjects  of  the  general  joy,  the  com- 
ing of  the  Messiah  to  reform  the  world,  to  execute  judg- 
ment upon  the  wicked,  and  to  establish  a  kingdom  of  right- 
eousness upon  the  earth."  "We  expect  his  second  advent 
to  restore  all  things,  to  judge  the  world,  to  condemn  his  en- 
emies, and  to  begin  his  glorious  reign.  Then  shall  heaven 
and  cartli  rejoice,  and  the  joy  of  the  redeemed  shall  be 
full."— Ao^e5  on  Psa.  70  :  10— lo.  and  98  :  4—9. 

From  Sayer  Rudd, 

(Minister  of  AValmcr,  in  Kent.) 

"As  to  the  seat  of  this  kingdom,  it  is  to  be  the  future 
neiD  heavens  and  neic  earth,  m  the  literal  sense  of  those 
words  (llev.  21  :  1),  Avhich  are  to  arise  from  those  now 
about  us,  after  their  being  purged  by  the  general  conflagration. 
The  duration  assigned  to  this  happy  period  is  that  of  a 
thousand  years  (Kev.  20  :  4).  The  grand  event,  on  which 
it  is  to  take  place,  is  the  revelation  of  Jesus  Christ  the 
second  time  from  heaven,  attended  with  the  resurrection  of 
the  righteous  only,  and  the  close  confinement  of  Satan  and 
his  angels  in  the  abyss." — London,  A.  D.  1753. 

From  Isaac  Watts,  D.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  Ili74,  in  England;  died  1748.) 

This  sweet  Psalmist  sings : 

"  Lo,  what  a  glorious  sight  appears 

To  our  believing  eyes  ! 
The  earth  and  seas  are  passed  away. 

And  the  old  rolling  skies  ! 
Fiom  the  third  heaven,  where  God  resides, 

That  holy,  happy  place. 
The  new  .lerusaleiu  comes  down, 

Adorned  with  shining  grace. 

28 


326  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

Attending  angels  shout  for  joy, 

And  tlie  bright  armies  sing, 
'  Mortals,  behold  the  sacred  seat 
"  Of  your  descending  King  ! 

The  God  of  glory  down  to  men 

Removes  his  blest  abode  ; 
Men  are  the  objects  of  his  love. 

And  he  their  gracious  God. 
His  own  soft  liand  shall  wipe  the  tears 

From  every  weeping  eye  ; 
And  pains,  and  groans,  and  griefs,  and  fears, 

And  deatli  itself,  shall  die.' 
How  bright  the  vision  !  0,  how  long 

Shall  this  glad  hour  delay  ? 
Fly  swifter  round,  ye  wheels  of  time, 
^And  bring  the  welcome  day !  " 

From  the   Rev.  Augustus  Montague  Toplady,  A.B. 

(Born  A.  D.  1740,  in  England;  died  1T78.) 

"  I  am  one  of  those  old-fashioned  people  who  believe  the 
doctrine  of  the  Millennium,  and  that  there  will  be  two  dis- 
tinct resurrections  of  the  dead  :  first,  of  the  just,  and  second, 
of  the  unjust ;  which  last  resurrection  of  the  reprobate  will 
not  commence  till  a  thousand  years  after  the  resurrection 
of  the  elect.  In  this  glorious  interval  of  a  thousand  years, 
Christ,  I  apprehend,  will  reign  in  person  over  the  kingdom 
of  the  just;  and  that  during  this  dispensation  different  de- 
grees of  glory  will  obtain,  and  every  man  shall  receive  his 
own  reward  according  to  his  o\Yn  labor,  1  Cor.  3  :  8." 

"  It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  a  day  will  dawn  when 
a  period  shall  be  put  to  every  disorder  under  which  nature 
at  present  labors,  and  the  earth  will  become  just  what  it 
was,  perhaps  considerably  better  than  it  was,  ere  sin  de- 
stroyed the  harmony  and  broke  the  balance  of  the  well- 
according  system.  The  stupendous  accomplishment  of  this 
predestined  restoration  is  largely  and  explicitly  foretold. 
Rev.  20,  where  we  read  that  the  apostate  angels  shall  be 
restrained  by  the  coercive  power  of  God,  &c.  The  next 
chapter  opens  with  acquainting  us,  that  prior  to  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Millennium,  a  new  heaven,  that  is,  a  new 
body  of  surrounding  air,  and  a  new  earth,  shall  be  prepared 
for  the  residence  of  Christ  and  his  elect :  '  I  saw  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth ;  for  the  first  heavens  and  the  first 
earth  were  passed  away ;'  intimating  that  this  terraqueous 
globe  and  its  circumambient  atmosphere  will  be  so  purified 


TESTIMONY    OF    OLD    ENGLISH    DISSENTERS.  327 


by  the  preceding  general  conflagration,  as  to  be  totally 
changed  in  their  qualities,  and  divested  of  everything  nox- 
ious, or  that  can  cause  disgust  and  pain." — Sermons,  Lib. 
iii.,  p.  470. 


To  the  testimony  of  these  English  dissenters  should  be 
added  that  of  an  old  Scotch  divine. 

From  the  "  Seraphic  Samuel  Rutherford." 

(Born  about  A.  D.  ICOO;  died  lOGl.) 

"  The  Lord  liath  told  you  what  ye  should  be  doing  till  he 
come  :  wait  and  hasten,  saith  Peter,  for  the  coming  of  our 
Lord.  All  is  night  that  is  here,  in  respect  of  ignorance 
and  daily  ensuing  troubles,  one  always  making  way  to  an- 
other, as  the  ninth  wave  of  the  sea  to  the  tenth  ;  therefore, 
siiji;h  and  louii;  for  the  dawning;  of  that  morning,  and  the 
breaking  of  that  day  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man, 
when  the  shadows  shall  flee  away.  Persuade  yourself  that 
the  King  is  coming.  Read  his  letter  sent  before  him  (Rev. 
3  :  11),  '  Behold,  I  come  quickly.'  "Wait,  Avith  the  wea- 
ried night-watch,  for  the  breaking  of  the  eastern  sky,  and 
think  that  ye  have  not  a  morrow  ;  as  the  wise  father  said, 
who,  being  invited  against  to-morrow  to  dine  with  his  friends, 
answered  '  These  many  days  I  have  had  no  morrow  at  all.'  " 
— Rutherford's  Litters,  pp.  37,  38. 

'•  We  can  do  nothing  else  but  reverence  our  Lord,  who 
doth  not  ordinarly  hold  Zion  on  her  rock  by  the  sword  and 
arm  of  flesh  and  blood,  but  by  his  own  might  and  out- 
stretched arm.  Her  King,  that  reigneth  in  Zion,  yet  liveth, 
and  they  are  plucking  him  round  about  to  pull  him  ofi"  his 
throne:  but  his  Father  hath  crowned  him,  and  who  dare  say 
'  It  is  all  done  ?  '  The  Lords  bride  will  be  up  and  down,  above 
the  water  swimming,  and  under  the  water  sinking,  until  her 
lovely  and  mighty  Redeemer  and  liusband  set  his  head 
through  these  skies,  and  come,  with  his  fair  court,  to  red  all 
their  pleas,*  and  give  them  the  hoped-for  inheritance  — 
and  then  we  shall  lay  down  our  swords,  and  triumph,  and 
fight  no  more.  But  do  not  think,  for  all  this,  that  our  Lord 
and  chief  shepherd  will  want  one  weak  sheep,  or  tlic  silliest 
dying  lamb  he  hath  redeemed.     He  will  tell  his  flock,  and 

*  Settle  all  their  disputes. 


328  ONE    HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

gathei*  them  all  together,  and  make   a  faithful  account  of 
them  to  his  Father,  who  gave  them  to  him." — /Z».,  pp.  11 1, 112. 

"If  Christ's  love  (that  fountain  of  delight)  were  laid 
as  open  to  me  as  I  would  wish.  0,  how  I  Avould  drink,  and 
drink  abundantly  !  0,  how  drunken  would  this  my  soul  be  ! 
I  half  call  his  absence  cruel :  and  the  mask  and  veil  on 
Christ's  face  a  cruel  covering,  that  hideth  such  a  fair  face 
from  a  sick  soul.  I  dare  not  challenge  himself,  but  his  ab- 
sence is  a  mountain  of  iron  upon  my  heavy  heart.  0,  when 
shall  we  meet  ?  0,  how  long  is  it  to  the  dawning  of  the 
marriage  day  ?  0  sweet  Lord  Jesus,  take  wide  steps !  0 
my  Lord,  come  over  mountains  at  one  stride !  0  my  Be- 
loved, flee  like  a  roe,  or  a  3'oung  hart,  on  the  mountains  of 
separation  !  0,  if  he  would  fold  the  heavens  together  like 
an  old  cloak,  and  shovel  time  and  days  out  of  the  way,  and 
make  ready  in  haste  the  Lambs  wife  for  her  husband!" — 
lb.,  p.  276. 

"  Our  Master  will  rend  the  clouds,  and  will  be  upon  us 
quickly,  and  clear  our  cause,  and  bring  us  all  out  in  our 
blacks  and  whites.  Clean,  clean  garments,  in  the  bride- 
groom's eye,  are  of  great  worth.  Step  over  this  hand- 
breadth  of  world's  glory,  into  our  Lord's  new  world  of  grace, 
and  ye  will  laugh  at  the  feathers  that  children  are  chasing 
in  the  air.  I  verily  judge,  that  these  inns,  which  men  are 
building  their  nest  in,  are  not  worth  a  drink  of  cold  water. 
It  is  a  rainy  and  smoky  house  :  best  Ave  come  out  of  it,  lest 
we  be  choked  with  the  smoke  thereof  0,  that  my  adversa- 
ries knew  how  sweet  my  sighs  for  Christ  are,  and  what  it  is 
for  a  sinner  to  lay  his  head  between  Christ's  breasts,  and  to 
be  over  head  and  ears  in  Christ's  love  !  Alas,  I  cannot 
cause  paper  to  speak  the  height,  and  breadth,  and  depth  of  it  I 
I  have  not  a  balance  to  weigh  the  worth  of  my  Lord  Jesus. 
Heaven,  ten  heavens,  would  not  be  the  beam  of  balance  to 
weigh  him  in.  I  must  give  over  praising  of  him.  Angels 
see  but  little  of  him.  0,  if  that  fair  one  would  take  the 
mask  off  his  fair  face,  that  I  might  see  him — a  kiss  of  him 
through  his  mask  is  half  a  heaven  !  '  0  day,  dawn !  0 
time,  run  fast !  0  Bridegroom,  post,  post  fast,  that  we  may 
meet !  0  heavens,  cleave  in  two,  that  that  bright  face  and 
head  may  set  itself  through  the  clouds  ! '  0,  that  the  corn 
were  ripe,  and  this  world  prepared  for  his  hook  !  " — p.  134. 


TESTIMONY    OF   NEW    ENGLAND   DIVINES.  329 

"As  for  the  church  which  ye  leave  behind  you,  the  govern- 
ment is  upon  Clirist's  shoulders,  and  he  will  plead  for  the 
blood  of  his  saints.  The  bush  hath  been  burning  above  five 
thousand  years,  and  Ave  never  yet  saw  the  ashes  of  this  fire  : 
yet  a  little  while,  and  the  vision  shall  not  tarry  :  it  will 
speak  and  not  lie.  I  am  more  afraid  of  my  duty,  than  of 
the  head.  Christ's  government.  He  cannot  fail  to  biino; 
judgment  to  victory.  0,  that  we  could  Avait  for  our  iiidden 
life  !  0,  that  Christ  would  remove  the  covering,  draAV  aside 
the  curtain  of  time,  and  rend  the  heavens,  and  come  down  ! 
0,  that  shadows  and  night  were  gone,  that  the  day  would 
break,  and  that  he  who  feedeth  among  the  lilies  would  cry 
to  his  heavenly  trumpeters,  '  JNIake  ready,  let  us  go  down 
and  fold  together  the  four  corners  of  the  world,  and  marry 
the  bride. '"—76.,  p.  507. 


testimony  of  the  early  new  england  divines. 
The  Rev.  John  Davenport. 

(Tho  first  minister  of  Now  Ilavcn,  Conn.,  and  afterwards  p.istor  of  tho 
first  church  in  Boston.  Ho  was  born  A.  D.  15'J7,  in  Coventry,  England, 
and  died  in  Boston  in  1CG8.) 

"  Here  was  the  special  favor  of  Heaven  to  our  Daven- 
port, that  so  many  years  ago,  when  in  both  Englands  the 
true  notion  of  the  Chiliad  was  hardly  apprehended  by  as 
many  divines  of  note  as  there  are  mouths  of  Nilus.  yet  this 
worthy  man  clearly  saw  into  it,  and  both  preached  and 
wrote  those  very  things  al)Out  the  future  state,  and  coming 
of  the  Lortl,  the  calling  of  the  Jews,  and  the  first  and 
second  resurrection  of  the  dead,  which  do  now  of  lute  years 
get  more  ground  against  the  opposition  of  the  otherwise 
minded,  and  find  a  kinder  entertainment  among  them  tliat 
'  search  the  Scriptures,'  and  whereof  he  afterwards,  when 
he  was  an  old  man,  gave  the  world  a  little  taste,  in  a  ju- 
dicious preface,  before  a  most  learned  and  nervous  treatise, 
composed  by  one  that  was  then  a  j'oung  man,  about  the 
•mystery  of  the  salvation  of  Israel.'  Even  then,  so  long 
ago,  it  was  that  he  asserted  '  A  personal,  visible,  powerful 
and  glorious  coming  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  unto  judg- 
ment, long  before  the  end  of  the  Avorld.'  "' — Cotton  Math- 
er's Magnalia. 

28* 


330  one  hundred  witnesses. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Walley. 

(Who  died  in ^679.) 

He  was  driven  to  New  England  bj  the  "  Act  of  Con- 
formity." He  Avrote  a  work  entitled  "  Balm  in  Gilead  to 
Heal  Zion's  Wounds."     Of  him  Cotton  Mather  writes  : 

"  In  my  father's  preface  to  his  discourses  on  the  New 
Jerusalem,  I  meet  this  passage :  '  Though  it  hath  been 
generally  thought  that  the  First  Resurrection  spoken  of  in 
the  Apocalypse  is  to  be  understood  only  in  a  mystical  sense, 
yet  some  of  the  first  and  eminent  teachers  in  the  church  be- 
lieved the  First  Resurrection  to  be  corporeal.  So  did  Mr. 
Davenport,  Mr.  Hook  (his  colleague),  and  of  later  years  that 
man  of  an  excellent  spirit,  Mr.  Thomas  Walley,  pastor  of 
the  church  in  Barnstable.'  Thus  did  our  pious  Chiliast, 
Walley,  it  seems,  come  to  his  thoughts,  as  Joseph  Medc  be- 
fore him  did,  and  as  in  the  times  of  more  illuminated  learn- 
ing men  must  and  will." — lb. 

The  Rev.  John  Eliot. 

(Minister  in  Roxbury,  Mass.,  and  the  famous  Apostle  to  the  Indians.     He 
was  born,  A.  D.  1604,  in  England,  and  died  161)0.) 

"  While  he  was  thus  making  his  retreat  out  of  this  evil 
world,  his  discourses  from  time  to  time  ran  upon  the  'coming 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  '  it  was  the  theme  which  he  still 
had  recourse  unto,  and  we  were  sure  to  have  something  of 
this,  whatever  other  subject  he  were  upon.  On  this  he 
talked,  on  this  he  prayed,  for  this  he  longed  :  and  especial- 
ly Avhen  any  bad  news  arrived,  his  usual  reflection  there- 
upon would  be,  '  Behold  some  of  the  clouds  in  which  we 
must  look  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  Man.'  " — lb. 

Then  we  have 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Whiting. 

He  was  trained  under  Sibbs  and  Preston,  and  was  com- 
pelled to  seek  refuge  in  New  England  in  1636,  at  which 
time  he  said,  "  We  may  take  out  of  God  that  which  we  for- 
sook in  father,  mother,  sister,  friends,  that  have  been  as 
near  and  dear  as  our  own  souls." 

He  published  a  volume  of  sermons  on  Abraham's  Prayer 


TESTIMONY   OF    NEW    ENGLAND   DIVINES.  331 

for  Sodom,  and  then  a  Lecture  on  The  Day  of  Judgment. 
Cotton  Mather,  speaking  of  tlie  latter,  is  led  to  remark : 

"  In  the  58th  of  Isaiah,  the  Lord  promises  a  time  of 
wondrous  light  and  joy  unto  his  restored  people,  and  the 
consolation  of  a  lastin<T  Sabliatism  —  things  to  be  accom- 
plislicd  at  the  second  coming  of  our  Lord.  At  the  second 
coming  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  one  of  the  first  things 
will  be  a  glorious  translation,  -wherein  the  members  of 
Christian  churches  ^Yill  be  called  before  him,  and  be  exam- 
ined, in  order  to  the  determination  of  their  new  state  under 
the  New  Jerusalem  that  is  to  follow  —  either  to  take  their 
part  in  the  glories  of  that  city  and  kingdom  for  a  thousand 
years  to  come,  or  to  be  exiled  into  the  confusion  of  them 
that  arc  to  be  without.  Now,  though  it  is  possible  that 
whole  discourse  of  our  Lord  (in  Matthew  25)  may  nextly 
refer  to  no  more  than  this  translation,  yet  inasmuch  as 
the  generality  of  interpreters  have  carried  it  into  the  more 
general  and  ultimate  proceedings  of  the  Last  Judgment,  our 
Whiting  did  so  too." — lb. 

TuE  Rev.  Samuel  Mather. 

Of  him.  his  relative,  Cotton  Mather,  thus  writes  : 
"  He  did  not  so  converse  with  one  more  obscure  part  of 
Sacred  Scripture  as  to  leave  another  uncultivated.  The 
difficulties  in  the  prophetical  part  of  the  New  Testament,  as 
well  as  in  the  figurative  part  of  the  Old.  Avere  happily  as- 
sailed by  his  learned  contemplations.  When  he  had  made 
considerable  progress  therein,  he  wrote  unto  his  youngest 
brother,  who  was  then  a  minister  in  New  England,  and 
since  president  of  the  college  there,  '  I  must  needs  tell  you 
how  much  I  do  rejoice  that  it  hath  pleased  God  to  stir  up 
your  spirit  to  search  into  the  prophetical  parts  of  the  Scrip- 
ture :  of  Avhich  I  have  often  thought,  and  still  do,  that  it  is 
great  pity  they  are  so  little  minded  and  seen  into  hy  many, 
botlf  ministers  and  others,  who  do  deprive  themselves  of 
much  satisfaction  which  they  might  receive  thereby.  It  is 
not  good  to  despise  any  part  of  the  mind  and  counsel  of 
God,  revealed  in  his  Word  ;  there  arc  unknown  treasures 
and  pleasures  there  stored  up,  more  precious  than  gold  and 
silver  ;  and  shall  we  not,  in  the  strength  of  his  Spirit,  search 


332  ONE    HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

for  them  ? '  And  as  the  brother  to  whom  he  thus  wrote 
gave  in  sundry  treatises,  in  divers  languages,  unto  the 
church  of  God,  several  happy  fruits  of  his  inquiries  into  the 
inspired  prophecies,  which  '  blessed  are  they  that  read  and 
hear,'  so  our  Mather  himself  arrived  unto  such  attainments 
herein,  that  he  had  no  cause  to  make  the  confession  (though 
such  was  his  modesty  that  he  was  ready  enough  to  do  it) 
of  some  eminent  persons,  Nullus  sii?n  in  Propheticis. 
When  it  is  said,  '  Blessed  are  they  that  keep  the  things 
written  in  this  prophecy,'  a  mathematician  will  tell  us  that 
■what  we  render  keep  is  rather  to  be  rendered  observe,  or 
watch,  or  mind;  for  Tj/gf/^-  is  used  by  the  Greeks  as  a  term 
of  art,  expressing  the  astronomical  observation  of  eclipses, 
planetary  aspects,  and  other  celestial  phenomena.  Mr. 
Mather,  accordingly,  counted  it  his  blessedness  to  take  an 
observation  of  what  fulfilment  the  divine  books  of  prophecy 
already  had  received,  and  thence  to  make  computation  of  the 
times  that  w'ere  yet  before  us,  and  of  the  things  to  be  done 
in  those  times." — lb. 

From  Rev.  Increase  Mather,  D.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1G39;   died  1723;  Pastor  of  the  North  Church  in  Boston,  and 
President  of  Harvard  University.) 

"  Christ  did  never  actually  deny  his  having  such  a  visible 
glorious  kingdom  upon  earth  as  that  which  his  disciples 
looked  for ;  only  he  corrected  their  error  as  to  the  time  of 
this  kingdom's  appearing.  Christ  did  not  say  to  them  that 
there  should  never  be  any  such  restoration  of  the  kingdom 
to  Israel  as  their  thoughts  were  running  upon ;  only  he 
telleth  them  that  the  times  and  seasons  were  not  for  them  to 
know ;  thereby  acknowledging  that  such  a  kingdom  should 
indeed  be  as  they  did  from  the  holy  prophets  expect. 
Herein  was  their  error,  not  in  expecting  a  glorious  appear- 
ance of  the  kingdom  of  God,  but  in  that  they  made  account 
that  this  would  be  immediately," —  The  Mystery  of  IsraeVs 
Salvation.     1669. 

"  Piscator,  a  little  before  his  death,  Avrote  a  discourse 
concerning  the  future  happy  estate  of  the  church.  It  is  a 
subject  proper  to  be  meditated  on  by  those  who  are,  as  I 
am,  hastening  into  the  eternal  world.  I  die  in  the  faith  of 
the  speedy  accomplishment  of  those  glorious  things  which 


TESTIMONY    OF    NEW    ENGLAND    DIVINES,  333 

are  spoken  concerning  the  city  of  God  and  the  kingdom  of 
Christ.  Amen !  Even  so  come,  Lord  Jesus  !  come 
quickly  ! ' 

"The  seventh  trumpet  will  sound  ere  long;  and  then 
there  will  be  voices  in  heaven  saying,  '  The  kingdoms  of 
this  world  are  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his 
Christ' 

"  He  will  then  remove  his  throne  from  heaven  to  this  vis- 
ible world.  Then  will  his  visible  kingdom  appear  in  the 
greatest  glory ;  when,  also,  there  will  be  a  personal  reign 
and  residence  of  Christ  in  this  lower  world." 

"  The  servants  of  Christ  ought  not  to  have  a  servile  fear 
of  the  great  day  of  judgment,  but  rather  to  pray  and  long 
for  it.  Should  they  not  long  for  the  coming  of  Christ  ?  Is 
it  not  the  spirit  and  character  of  a  true  believer  to  do  so? 
Docs  not  the  Song  of  Songs,  which  is  Solomon's,  conclude 
with  these  words,  '  Make  haste,  my  beloved,  and  be  thou 
like  to  a  roc,  or  to  a  young  hart  on  tiie  mountains  of  spices'  ? 
And  does  not  the  blessed  Book  of  God  conclude  with  like 
fervent  desires  ?  —  '  The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say  come. 
Amen.  Even  so  come,  Lord  Jesus  ! '  But  Cln-ist  will  not 
come  personally  to  preside  over  the  earth  before  the  day 
of  judgment,  which  is  often  in  the  Scripture  called  His 
coming." 

"When  they  that  corrupt  the  earth  arc  destroyed,  a  new 
earth  will  succeed,  in  which  shall  dwell  righteousness.  Then 
will  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  become  the  kingdoms  of 
Ciirist,  and  he  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever." — JE.vlracts 
from  Discourse  on  Faith,  A.  D.  1710. 

From  Rev.  Cotton  Mather,  D.D. 

(A  son  of  Increase  blather,  and  his  successor  in  tho  North  Church.     Born 
A.  D.  1GG3;  died  in  1728.) 

"  The  first  and  famous  pastors  in  the  New  England 
churches  did,  in  their  public  ministry,  frequently  insist  on 
the  doctrine  of  Christ's  glorious  kingdom  on  earth  which 
will  take  place  after  the  conversion  of  the  Jews,  and  when 
the  fulness  of  the  Gentiles  shall  come  in.  It  is  a  j^ity  that 
this  doctrine  is  no  more  inculcated  by  the  present  minis- 
try, which  has  induced  me  the  rather  to  preach,  and  noAV 


334  ONE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

by  the  press  to  publish,  what  is  emitted  herewith."' — Pre- 
face to  the  MagnaUa,  p.  18. 

"It  is  well  known  that  in  the  earliest  of  the  primitive 
times  the  faithful  did,  in  a  literal  sense,  believe  the  '  second 
comincr '  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  risino;  and 
reigning  of  the  saints  w^ith  him,  a  thousand  years  before  the 
'rest  of  the  dead  live  again,' — a  doctrine  which,  however, 
some  of  later  years  have  counted  heretical ;  yet  in  the  days 
of  Irenreus,  were  questioned  by  none  but  such  as  were 
counted  heretics.  It  is  evident  from  Justin  Martyr  that 
this  doctrine  of  the  Chiliad  Avas  in  his  days  embraced  among 
all  orthodox  Christians ;  nor  did  this  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
begin  to  be  doubted  until  the  kingdom  of  Antichrist  began 
to  advance  into  a  considerable  figure,  and  then  it  fell  chiefly 
under  the  reproaches  of  such  men  as  were  fain  to  deny  the 
divine  authority  of  the  Book  of  Revelation,  and  of  the 
Second  Epistle  of  Peter.  He  is  a  stranger  to  antiquity  who 
does  not  find  and  own  the  ancients  generally  of  the  persua- 
sion. Nevertheless,  at  last  men  came,  not  only  to  lay  aside 
the  modesty  expressed  by  one  of  the  first  Anti-Millenaries, 
namely,  Jerome,  but  also  with  violence  to  persecute  the  mil- 
lenary truth  as  an  heretical  pravity.  So  the  mystery  of 
our  Lord's  '  appearing  in  his  kingdom  '  lay  buried  in  Popish 
darkness,  till  the  light  thereof  had  a  fresh  dawn.  Since  the 
Antichrist  entered  into  the  last  half-time  of  the  period  allot- 
ted for  him,  and  now  within  the  last  few  sevens  of  years, 
as  things  grow  nearer  to  accomplishment,  learned  and  pious 
men.  in  great  numbers,  everywhere  come  to  receive,  explain, 
and  maintain,  the  old  faith  about  it." — Magnolia  Cliristi 
Americana. 

"  Speedily,  with  flaming  fire;  but  who  knows  how  soon? 
The  Son  of  God,  about  to  descend,  will  inflict  vengeance  on 
them  who  know  not  God,  and  obey  not  his  Gospel ;  but  he 
will  manifest  his  kingdom  of  the  saints  in  the  earth,  which 
is  to  be  possessed  by  our  second  and  heavenly  Adam  :  and 
this,  we  confess,  is  ascertained  to  us  by  promise,  but  in  an- 
other state,  as  being  after  the  resurrection. 

"  They  indulge  themselves  in  a  vain  dream,  not  to  say  in- 
sane, who  think,  pray,  and  hope,  contrary  to  the  whole 
sacred  Scripture  and  sound  reason,  that  the  promised  hap- 


TESTIMONY    OF    NEW    ENGLAND    DIVINES.  335 

pincss  of  the  church  ou  earth  will  be  before  the  Lord  Jesus 
shall  appear  in  lii.s  kingtlom. 

"  Witliout  doubt  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  will  not  be- 
come the  kingdoms  of  God  and  his  Christ,  before  the  pre- 
ordained time  of  the  dead,  in  which  the  reward  shall  be 
given  to  the  servants  of  God,  and  to  those  that  fear  his 
name. 

"  Tlie  rest  of  llie  saints,  and  the  promised  sabbath,  and 
the  kingdom  of  God,  in  which  his  will  shall  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  heaven,  and  those  great  things  of  which 
God  hath  spoken  by  the  mouths  of  his  prophets,  all  prophe- 
sying as  with  one  voice  ;  all  shall  be  confirmed  by  their  ful- 
filment in  the  new  cartli,  not  in  our  defiled  and  accursed 
earth." — Student  and  Preacher. 

From  Rev.   Thomas  Prince. 

(Or  tlic  Old  South  Church,  Boston.     Born  A.  D.  1687;  died  1758.) 

"  For  near  forty  years  I  luwe  been  more  and  more  iu- 
clincd  to  think  that  the  Gog  and  Magog  in  Rev.  xx.  xdHI 
be  the  wicked  raised  at  the  end  of  the  thousand  years, 
ivhose  rancnrcd  and  malirions  spirits,  with  all  the  devils 
the?}  brought  out  of  the  dark  abyss  together,  possessing, 
infatuating  and.  injhnning  them,  icill  be  permitted  to 
rage  against  the  saints  for  a  very  little  season,  till  the 
general  judgment  conies  on  and  quells  them.'''' 

Such  were  the  sentiments  of  the  flithers  of  the  New 
England  churches  who  assisted  in  penning  the  following : 

FiiOiAi  the  Saybrook  Platform. 

(Adopted  by  the  Connecticut  churches  in  A.  D.  1708.) 

"  God  hath  appointed  a  day  wherein  He  will  judge  the 
world  in  righteousness  by  Jesus  Christ,  in  which  all  persons 
that  have  lived  upon  earth  shall  appear,"  &c. ;  and  "So 
will  he  have  that  day  unknown  to  men,  that  they  may 
shake  off  all  carnal  security,  and  be  always  watching,  be- 
cause they  know  not  at  what  hour  the  Lord  will  come ;  and 
may  be  ever  prepared  to  say,  '  Come !  Lord  Jesus ! 
Come  quickly!     Amen.'  "*  —  From  theS2nd  Article. 

*  This  -was  taken  by  the  framers  of  the  Platform  from  the  Westminster 
Assembly's  formula  of  faith. 


336  one  hundred  avitnesses. 

From  the  Rev.  Joshua  Spaulding. 

(Minister  of  the  Tabernacle,  in  Salem,  Mass.) 

"  As  late  as  the  great  earthquake  in  New  England, 
many  Christians  were  looking,  not  for  the  modern  millenni- 
um, but  for  the  second  coming  of  Christ ;  and  with  this 
expectation  thej  arose  and  trimmed  their  lamps.  Many 
Ciiristians  were  then  in  an  exercise  of  faith  like  that  re- 
lated of  the  reverend  and  godly  Mr.  P ,  who,  awaking 

from  sleep,  said  to  his  consort,  '  Mj  dear,  the  Lord  is 
come  ;  let  us  arise  and  go  forth  to  meet  him.'  I  have  had 
the  testimony  of  elderly  Christian  people,  in  several  parts 
of  New  England,  that  within  their  remembrance  this  doc- 
trine was  first  advanced  in  the  places  where  they  lived,  and 
have  heard  them  name  the  ministers  who  first  preached  it  in 
their  churches.  No  doctrines  can  be  more  indisputably 
proved  to  have  been  the  doctrines  of  the  primitive  church, 
than  those  we  call  millenarian ;  and,  beyond  all  dispute,  the 
same  were  favorite  doctrines  with  the  fathers  of  New  Eng- 
land ;  with  the  words  of  one  of  whom,  writing  upon  this 
subject,  we  shall  conclude  our  observations  upon  their  an- 
tiquity :  '  They  are  not  new,  but  old ;  they  may  be  new  to 
some  men,  but  I  cannot  say  it  is  to  their  honor.'  " — Spauld- 
ing's  Lectures,  pp.  221,  222.     A.  D.  1796. 

"We  are  taught  to  pray.  Thy  kingdom  come:  thy  will 
be  done,  as  in  heaven,  so  in  earth  :  and  we  believe  in  Christ, 
that  all  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  his  glory. 

"  As,  on  earth,  he  was  openly  dishonoi-ed,  despised,  and 
rejected ;  so,  on  earth,  he  will  be  openly  honored,  admired, 
and  adored.  On  earth  he  was  dressed  in  a  mock  robe,  and 
crowned  with  a  crown  of  thorns  ;  and  on  earth  he  will  be 
dressed  in  the  robes  of  his  Father's  glory,  and  crowned  with 
that  majesty,  before  which  devils  tremble,  saints  bow,  and 
angels  veil  their  fiices." — lb.,  p.  123. 

"  lie  will  descend  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives  —  0,  with 
what  grandeur  !  Sinai  quaked  greatly,  when  the  Lord  de- 
scended there :  but  when  he  shall  step  down  upon  the  top 
of  the  holy  Olivet,  and  his  feet  shall  stand  there,  that 
mountain  shall  cleave  in  the  midst  thereof,  and  flee  each 
way  from  his  presence  ;  yea,  all  the  mountains  round  about 
will  flee  into  the  sea,  and  be  no  more  found.     Then  will  be 


TESTIMONY   OF    NEW   ENGLAND    DIVINES.  337 

heard  a  great  voice  out  of  heaven  —  the  general  shout  of 
angels  —  saying,  *  Behold,  the  tabernacle  of  God  is  with 
men,  and  he  Avill  dwell  with  them,  and  his  servants  shall 
serve  him,  and  the}'  shall  see  his  fiice. 

"  Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  car  heard,  nor  hath  entered  into 
the  heart  of  man,  the  glory  of  this  kingdom ;  before  it,  the 
flishion  of  the  natui-al  Avorld  —  the  heavens  and  the  earth  — 
will  be  Avondcrfully  changed,  gloriously  renovated." — lb., 
pp.  123,  124. 

"  It  has  been  a  frequent  error  to  look  for  rest  short  of 
God's  rest.  Good  Zacharias  and  his  brethren  fondly  looked 
for  a  rest  in  this  life ;  that,  bciiuj  delivered  out  of  the 
hand  of  their  enemies,  they  might  serve  God  vithoiU 
fear,  in  holiness  and  righteousness,  all  the  days  of  their 
life.  This  appears  to  have  been  an  error  among  the  tribes 
that  entered  into  Canaan,  which  Joshua  endeavored  to 
remove,  by  speaking  of  another  day  —  that  is,  the  rest 
of  God,  which  is  rest  indeed ;  all  short  of  which  is  labor 
and  war. 

' '  People,  therefore,  in  the  present  expectation  of  a 
millennium,  are  looking  for  either  too  much,  or  not  enough. 
To  be  consistent,  they  must  give  up  the  idea  cither  of 
its  being  a  sabbath  —  a  rest  —  or  of  its  being  probation 
time  ;  for  these  ideas  will  never  harmonize.  There  re- 
mainctli  a  rest  to  the  people  of  God;  but  he  that 
enters  into  it  ceases  from  his  labors. 

"I  know  such  arguments  as  these  will  be  little 
felt  by  them  that  arc  at  ease  in  Zion,  whose  condition 
I  pray  I  may  never  envy  ;  but  they  that  endure  hardness 
as  good  soldiers  will  think  more  of  them. 

''  The  doctrine  of  the  millennium  is  truth  ;  and  the  pre- 
vailing expectation,  that  it  is  fast  approaching,  and  is  now 
very  near,  is  doubtless  rational.  And  is  the  millennial 
state  of  tiie  church  the  new  Jerusalem  —  the  blessed  and 
holy  Jczreel  ?  Is  it  a  dowry  for  the  fliitliful,  of  such  rich- 
ness— a  promised  reward  for  the  prophets  and  saints,  small 
and  great,  so  truly  estimable  —  wherefore  God  is  not 
ashamed  to  be  called  their  God?  Is  the  millennium  tho 
day  of  marriage  —  the  day  of  the  consummation  of  redeem- 
ing love  ?  Is  it  tlie  day  of  the  joy  of  the  Lord  —  the  day 
of  the  gladness  of  his  heart  ?  Is  it  the  day  when  his  cs- 
29 


338  ONE   HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

poused,  blessed  of  the  Father^  shall  enter  into  his  joj, 
and  when  the  r\(jhteous  sliall  shine  forth,  as  the  sun  in 
the  kinfjdom  of  their  FatJier  ?  Ye  that  love  the  appear- 
ing of  Christ,  lift  up  your  heads  and  rejoice  ;  your  redemp- 
tion dra-weth  nigh.  Comfort  one  another  -with  these 
words."—///.,  pp.  191,  192. 


TESTIMOJSTY  OP  BAPTIST  DIVINES. 

In  their  confession  of  faith,  presented  to  Charles  II.  A.  D. 
1660,  and  signed  by  forty-one  elders  and  deacons,  they 
say: 

"  We  believe  that  there  will  be  an  order  in  the  resurrec- 
tion ;  Christ  is  the  first  fruits,  and  then  next,  or  after,  they 
that  are  Christ's  at  his  coming ;  then,  or  afterward,  cometh 
the  end.  Concerning  the  kingdom  and  reign  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  as  we  do  believe  that  he  is  now  in  heaven  at 
his  Father's  right  hand,  so  w'e  do  believe  that,  at  the  time 
appointed  of  the  Father,  he  shall  come  again  in  power  and 
great  glory;  and  that  at  or  after  his  coming  the  second 
time,  he  will  not  only  raise  the  dead,  and  judge  and  restore 
the  world,  but  will  also  take  to  himself  his  kingdom,  and 
will,  according  to  the  Scriptures,  reign  on  the  throne  of  his 
father  David,  on  Mount  Zion,  in  Jerusalem,  forever. 

"We  believe  that  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  will  be  an 
universal  kinifdom,  and  that  in  this  kin!>;dom  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  himself  will  be  alone,  visible,  supreme  Lord  and 
King  of  the  Avliole  earth. 

"  We  believe  that  as  this  kingdom  will  be  universal,  so  it 
will  be  also  an  everlasting  kingdom,  that  shall  have  no  end, 
nor  cannot  be  shaken ;  in  which  kingdom  the  saints  and 
faithful  in  Christ  Jesus  shall  receive  the  end  of  their  faith, 
even  the  salvation  of  their  souls ;  where  the  Lord  is  they 
shall  be  also. 

"  We  believe  that  the  New  Jerusalem  that  shall  come 
down  from  God  out  of  heaven,  when  the  tabernacle  of  God 
shall  be  with  them,  and  he  will  dwell  among  them,  will  be 
the  metropolitan  city  of  this  kingdom,  and  Avill  be  the  glo- 
rious place  of  residence  of  both  Christ  and  his  saints  forever, 
and  will  be  so  situated  as  that  the  kingly  palace  will  be  on 
Mount  Zion,  tlie  holy  hill  of  David,  where  his  throne  was." 
—  Crosby' s  Hi^t.  of  the  Haptlsts. 


testimony  of  baptist  divines.  339 

From  John  Buntan. 

(The  Prince  of  Dreaiucrs;  born  A.  D.  1028;  died  1688.) 

"  None  ever  saw  tins  Avorlil  as  it  was  in  its  first  creation; 
but  Adam  and  liis  wife,  neither  will  any  see  it  unlil  the 
manifestation  of  the  children  of  God:  that  is,  until  the  re- 
demption or  resurrection  of  the  saints.  But  then  it  shall  be 
delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption  into  the  glorious 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God.  Adam,  therefore,  as  a  type 
of  Christ,  reigned  in  the  church  almost  a  thousand  years. 
The  world,  tlierefore,  ])eginning  thus,  doth  show  us  how  it 
Avill  end.  viz.,  by  the  reign  of  the  second  Adam,  as  it  began 
with  the  reign  of  the  first.  These  long-lived  nvni,  therefore, 
show  us  the  glory  that  the  church  shall  have  in  the  latter 
day,  even  in  the  seven  thousandth  year  of  the  world,  thot 
Sabbath  when  Christ  shall  set  up  his  kingdom  on  earth. 
According  to  that  which  is  written :  '  They  lived  and  reigned 
with  Chri.st  a  thousand  years.'  ....  Hence,  therefore,  in 
the  first  place,  the  dragon  is  chained  for  these  thousand 
years." — John  Banyan,  on  the  First  Chapters  of 
Genesis. 

From  Rev.  John  Gill,  D.D. 

(Tlic  Baptist  commentator;  born  A.  D.  1G97,  in  England;  died  1771.) 

"  We  Christians  look  for  new  heavens,  and  a  neip  earth, 
irherein  dirc/lcth  ri;jlifeousness,  righteous  persons,  and. 
they  only,  2  Pet.  3  :  13.  The  things  to  be  inquired  into 
are.  what  these  new  heavens  and  earth  be,  and  who  the 
inhabitants  of  them. 

I.  What  are  meant  by  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth,  in  the  above  passages ;  — these  are  to  be  understood  not 
in  a  fiiTurative,  but  in  a  literal  sense.  1.  Not  in  a  figura- 
tive  sense,  as  of  the  Gospel  church  state ;  Peter  could  never 
speak  of  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth  in  this  sense  as 
future.  The  Gospel  church  state,  even  in  the  first  and 
purest  ages  of  it,  was  not  perfect  as  the  state  of  things  will 
be ;  but  in  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth  none  but 
such  as  are  perfectly  righteous  will  dwell  in  the  New  Jeru- 
salem state :  there  will  be  no  temple,  no  worship,  in  the 
manner  that  now  is.  Nor  is  it  to  be  understood  of  the  state 
of  the  Jews  at  the  time  of  their  conversion.     This  will  be 


340  ONE   HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

before  the  new  heavens  and  new  earth  are  formed,  Rev.  19  : 
7,  8.  Nor  of  the  spiritual  reign  of  Christ,  which  will  be  in 
the  present  earth,  and  not  in  the  new  one.  Nor  of  the 
heavenly  state,  or  the  ultimate  glory ;  for  these  new  heavens 
and  earth  are  distinct  from  the  third  heaven,  the  seat  of 
that.  The  camp  of  the  saints,  and  the  holy  and  beloved 
city,  are  j'epresented  as  on  earth,  even  at  the  end  of  a  thou- 
sand years,  Rev.  20  :  9.  2.  The  new  heavens  and  new 
earth  are  to  be  understood  in  a  literal  sense;  a  literal  sense 
is  not  to  be  departed  from  without  necessity ;  the  phrase, 
Iteaven.  and  earthy  is  used  by  the  apostle  Peter  frequently, 
and  always  literally  in  the  sublunary  world ;  by  the  new 
ones  can  be  meant  no  other.  (1.)  The  new  heavens  must 
be  interpreted  of  the  airy  heavens,  and  of  a  new  air  in  them ; 
purged,  purified,  and  refined  by  fire ;  no  storms  of  hail,  no 
stores  of  snow,  no  blustering  storms  and  tempests,  no 
coruscations  and  flashes  of  lightning,  nor  peals  of  thunder; 
but  a  pure,  serene,  and  tranquil  air,  quite  suited  to  the 
bodies  of  raised  saints  ;  the  air  will  now  be  cleared  of  devils, 
the  whole  body  of  them  Avill  be  cast  into  the  abyss. 
(^2.)  The  new  earth  will  be  an  earth  refined  and  renewed, 
and  restored  to  its  paradisaical  estate,  as  it  was  before  the  fall. 
It  shall  no  more  bring  forth  thorns  and  thistles,  nor  require 
labor  and  pains  to  cultivate  it.  It  must  be  but  reasonable, 
that  since  Christ  hath  redeemed  his  people  from  the  curse 
of  the  law,  being  made  a  curse  for  them,  that  every  degree 
of  that  curse  should  be  removed ;  which,  as  yet,  is  not  from 
the  earth  particularly :  when  the  second  Adam,  and  his 
seed,  come  to  enjoy  the  earth  alone,  accordingly,  thciu  icill 
he  11.0  more  curse,  Rev.  22  :  3. 

II.  The  inhabitants  of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth 
are  next  to  be  considered.  These  are  described,  1.  By  the 
name  oi  rigltteousness  itself;  wlierein,  in  the  new  heavens 
and  earth,  dicelleth  rirjhteoiisness,  2  Pet.  3:  13.  that  is, 
righteous  persons ;  see  Isaiah  60  :  21,  Thy  people  shall  be 
all  ri(jhteoiis,  iheij  shall  inherit  the  land  forever:  Psal. 
37  :  29,  The  righteous  shall  inherit  the  kaid,  and  difell 
therein  forever.  2.  The  inhabitants  of  which  are  the 
palm-bearing  company  in  Rev.  7 :  9,  for  this  vision  is 
synchronal,  or  cotemporary,  with  that  of  the  new  heavens 
and  the  new  earth.     These  are  the  persons,  and  this  Avill  be 


TESTIMONY    OF    BAPTIST    DIVIXES.  341 


the  happy  case  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  new  heavens  and  the 
new  earth." — Gill's  Divini/i/,  pp.  427 — 8. 

'•  Christ  Avill  have  a  special,  peculiar,  <j;lorious,  and  visible 
kingdom,  in  Avhich  he  will  roign  personally  on  earth.  1.  I 
call  it  a  special,  peculiar  kingdom,  different  from  the  king- 
dom of  nature,  and  from  his  spiritual  kingdom.  2.  It  will 
be  very  glorious  and  visible ;  hence  his  appearing  and  king- 
dom are  put  together,  2  Tim.  4:1.  3.  This  kingdom  will 
be,  after  all  the  enemies  of  Christ,  and  of  his  people,  are 
removed  out  of  the  way.  Antichrist  will  be  destroyed  ;  an 
angel,  who  is  no  other  than  Christ,  will  then  personally 
descend  to  bind  Satan  and  all  his  angels.  5.  This  kingdom 
of  Christ  will  be  bounded  by  two  resurrections ;  by  the  first 
resurrection,  or  the  resurrection  of  the  just,  at  which  it  will 
begin ;  and  by  the  second  resurrection,  or  the  resurrection 
of  the  wicked,  at  which  it  will  end,  or  nearly."' — lb., 
p.  429. 

From  Rev.  Robert  Hall,  A.M. 

(Of  Bristol,  Engliincl  ;  born  A.  D.  1TG4;  died  1S31.) 

"  Everything  in  the  condition  of  mankind  announces  the 
approach  of  some  great  crisis." — Seniton  on  Advance  of 
Kiwwledge. 

^Ir.  Thorp,  of  England,  conversed  with  him  on  the  subject 
a  few  days  before  Mr.  IlalVs  decease,  who  "regretted  that 
he  had  not  preached  the  Millenarian  views  he  entertained." 
—  Diiffidd  on  Proph.,  p.  259. 

From  the  Rev.  John  Cox. 

(Minister  of  the  Gospel  in  Woolwich,  England.) 

"  Christ,  at  his  second  coming,  will  be  manifested  as  the 
living  and  loving  husband  of  his  now  perfected  elect  church. 
....  Then  shall  their  bodies  be  raised,  and  they,  as  par- 
takers in  the  first  resurrection,  be  blessed  and  holy.  Yes, 
the  powerful  voice  of  Jesus  shall  break  up  all  their  tombs, 
his  love-call  shall  collect  their  scattered  dust,  and  his  plastic 
hand  shall  in  a  moment,  '  according  to  his  mighty  working,' 
mould  the  once  afilicted  and  sinful  body  into  a  beauteous 
temple,  fit  for  the  immortal  spirit  evermore  to  reside  in  — 
a  body  suited  to  the  air  and  work  of  immortality.  With 
what  joy  shall  the  saints  see  their  bodies  wake  from 
29* 


342  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 


their  lowly  beds,  with  what  rapture  shall  the  soul  meet  its 
old  companion,  then  no  longer  its  pest,  its  tempter,  and  its 
clog  !  See,  they  are  bound  together  in  an  everlasting  union, 
and  immortality  rolls  its  full  tide  of  blessedness  through 
every  faculty,  through  every  member." — Coming  and 
Kingdom,  p.  69.     A.  D.  1840. 

"  These  views  .  .  .  have  yielded  consolation  to  thousands. 
The  primitive  martyrs  armed  themselves  with  such  thoughts, 
and  so  went  boldly  through  reproach,  suflferings,  and  death. 
It  hath  the  same  exhilarating  tendency  noic,  under  trials 
of  a  different  nature.  If  persecuted,  the  Christian  considers 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  promised  to  such.  If  earthly  good 
things  vanish,  he  considers  that  '  he  has  in  heaven  a  better, 
and  an  enduring  substance.'  If  providences  are  dark,  lie 
thinks  of  that  time  when  all  will  be  cleared  up.  If  his 
honors  on  earth  fade,  he  recollects  that  the  redeemed  of  the 
Lord  are  soon  to  be  manifested  as  kings  and  priests.  If 
sickness  invades  his  frame,  he  anticipates  with  joy  the 
healthful  air  of  the  new  Jerusalem,  and  the  freshening  vir- 
tues of  life's  broad  stream.  When  temptations  annoy,  he 
meditates  on  the  promises  made  to  the  overcomer,  and  girds 
his  armor  round  him." — /Z».,  p.  155. 

"  The  appearing  of  Christ,  and  the  resurrection  of  the 
body,  Avas  that  on  which  they  dwelt  with  divine  enthusiasm. 
Amidst  painful  bereavements  and  heart-rending  separations 
—  amidst  disappointed  hopes  and  darkened  prospects,  as  it 
regards  earthly  things  —  how  sweet  the  anticipation  of  being 
associated  with  nobler  friends  and  beholding  brighter  pros- 
pects than  ever  v/e  possessed  or  beheld  on  earth  !  How 
cheering  the  hope,  amidst  the  din  of  war,  the  shouts  of 
false  joy,  the  yell  of  idolatry,  and  the  groans  of  creation, 
to  hope,  and  firmly  to  believe,  that  a  period  is  hastening, 
when  peace  shall  stretch  its  shady  wings  over  the  sons  of 
men,  when  rivers  of  joy  shall  water  this  vale  of  tears,  when 
cherubim  to  cherubim  shall  cry,  '  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  is 
THE  Lord  God  of  Hosts  ;  the  whole  earth  is  full  of 

HIS  GLORY.'  " — lb.,  p.  156. 


TESTIMONY    OF    METHODIST    DIVINES.  343 

TESTIMONY  OF  METHODIST    DIVINES. 

From  the  Rev.  John  AVesley,  M.  :l. 

(The  Founder  of  Methodism;  born  A.  D.  1703,  in  Enghiiid;  died  1T88.) 

"  Will  the  '  creature,'  will  even  the  brute  creation,  always 
remain  in  this  deplorable  condition  ?  God  forbid  that  we 
should  affirm  this  ;  yea,  or  even  entertain  such  a  thought. 
While  the  '  whole  creation  groancth  together  '  (whether  men 
attend  or  not),  their  groans  are  not  disperse<l  in  idh^  air,  but 
enter  into  the  ears  of  Him  that  made  thom.  While  his 
creatures  '  travail  together  in  pain,'  he  knoweth  all  their 
pain,  and  is  bringing  them  nearer  and  ueajrer  to  the  birth, 
•which  shall  be  accomplished  in  its  season.  Tie  seeth  'the 
earnest  expectation  "  wherewith  the  whole  anii.nated  creation 
'  waiteth  for  '  that  final  '  manifestation  of  the  sons  of  God,' 
in  w  hich  '  they  themselves  also  shall  be  delivered  [not  by 
annihilation ;  annihilation  is  not  deliverance]  from  the 
[jirescnt]  bondage  of  corruption,  into  [a  measure  of]  the 
glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God.'  Nothing  can  be 
more  express ;  away  with  vulgar  prejudices,  and  let  tlVo 
pl;iin  word  of  God  take  place.  They  shall  be  delivered  from 
'the  bondage  of  corruption,  into  glorious  liberty;'  even  a 
measure,  according  as  they  are  capable,  of  '  the  liberty  of  the 
childrenof  God.' '' 

From  the  Rev.  Charles  Wesley,  M.A. 

(Born  A.  D.  1708,  in  England;  died  1785.) 

Like  Watts,  the  "Methodist  Minstrel"  also  sings  his 
faith  : 

"  Quick  US  tlie  darted  lightning  flies, 
Fl.-isliing  at  once  throughout  the  skies, 
Saviour,  tliou  wilt  on  cartli  appear, 
To  'stalilish  thy  dominion  here. 
Before  the  final  general  doom, 
We  know  thou  wilt  to  judgment  come, 
Tlij'  foes  destroy,  thy  friends  maintain. 
And  glorious  with  thine  ancients  reign." 

Wesley's  Hymva,  p.  185. 

His  hymn  on  Heb.  9  :  28  thus  concludes : 

"  Come,  then,  our  Heavenly  Friend, 
Sorrow  and  death  to  end  ; 
Pure  Millennium  joy  to  give. 


344  ONE    UUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

Now  appear  on  earth  again. 
Now  thy  people  saved  receive, 

Now  begin  thjf  glorious  reign." — lb.,  p.  302. 

A  similar  pleading  we  have  in  the  hymn  on  Rev.  1:5: 

"  ^csus,  let  thy  kingdom  come 
(Inspired  by  thee  we  pray), 
Previous  to  the  general  doom, 

The  everlasting  day." — lb.,  p.  414. 
***** 
"  Resolved  to  toil  and  sutler  on, 

Till  thou  the  second  time  appear, 
Ascend  thy  bright  Millennial  throne. 

And  reign  the  King  of  gloiy  here." — lb.,  p.  418. 
***** 
*'  So  when  thou  shalt  on  earth  appear. 
To  fix  thy  heavenly  kingdom  here, 
I  sliall  with  my  Redeemer  join. 
Partake  the  victory  divine  ; 
And,  clothed  with  thy  resistless  power. 
The  conqueror  of  the  world  adore." — lb.,  p.  418. 

The  laat  is  from  the  hymn  on  Rev.  5  :  10, — "  Wc  shall 
reign  on  the  earth  :" 

"  Mightier  joys  ordained  to  know, 
AVhen  thou  com'st  to  reign  below, 
Wc  shall  at  thy  side  sit  down. 
Partners  of  thy  great  white  throne. 
Kings  a  thousand  years  with  thee. 
Kings  through  all  eternity." — lb.,  p.  425. 

From  the  Rev.  John  Fletcher. 

(Born  A.  D.  1729,  in  Switzerland;  died  1785.) 

"It  is  remarkable  that  more  books  have  been  written 
upon  the  prophecies  these  last  hundred  years  than  were 
ever  known  before,  and  all  —  those,  at  least,  Avhich  I  have 
read  —  agree  that  these  things  will,  in  all  probability,  soon 
come  upon  the  earth.  I  know  many  have  been  grossly 
mistaken  as  to  the  years ;  but  because  they  were  rash,  shall 
we  be  stupid?  Because  they  said  ^  to-day.^  shall  we  say 
'never,'  and  cry  'peace,  peace,'  when  we  should  look  about 
us  with  eyes  full  of  expectation  ?  .  .   . 

"Let  us  not  judge  rashly,  nor  utter  vain  predictions  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord ;  but  yet  let  us  look  about  us  with 
watchful  eyes,  lest  the  enemy  take  advantage  of  us,  and  we 
lose  the  opportunity  of  rousing  people  out  of  their  sleep,  of 
confirming  the  weak,  and  building  up  in  our  most  holy  faith 
those  who  know  him  in  whom  they  have  believed.  If  we 
are  mistaken  in  forming  conjectures,  if  the  phenomena  we 


TESTIMONY    OF   METHODIST   DIVINES.  345 


hear  of  everywhere  are  but  comTnon  providences,  if  these 
things  hapj3en  not  to  us,  but  to  our  chilchcn  (as  they  most 
certainly  ^vill,  before  the  third  generation  is  swept  away),  is 
it  not  our  business  to  prepare  ourselves  for  thera,  to  medi- 
tate on  them,  and  to  warn  as  many  people  as  we  can  pru- 
dently, lest  their  blood  should  be  required  at  our  hands, 
were  they  to  fall,  because  of  a  surprise?  Let  us  pray  to 
God  more  frequently,  that  for  the  elect's  sake  He  would  still 
more  shorten  the  days  of  the  tribulation,  and  add  daily  to 
tiie  true  church  such  as  will  be  saved.  But  let  us  not  for- 
get to  rejoice  with  Abraham,  in  seeing  by  faith  the  glorious 
day  of  our  Lord ;  and  to  hasten  by  our  iervent  prayers  that 
glorious  kingdom,  those  happy  days,  when  narrow  shall  be 
the  way  to  destruction,  when  saints  raised  from  the  dead 
shall  converse  with  living  saints,  and  the  world  of  spirits  be 
manifested  in  a  great  measure  to  the  material  world, —  in  a 
word,  when  Jesus  shall  be  all  in  all. 

"What  a  glorious  prospect  is  this!  Let  us,  then,  often 
think  of  these  words  of  our  Lord,  '  Behold,  I  come  quickly.' 
'  Blessed  is  he  that  mindeth  the  sayings  of  this  prophecy.' 
Let  us  join  '  the  Spirit  and  the  bride '  who  say,  '  come.'  0, 
'  let  him  that  heareth  say,  come  ;  and  let  him  that  is  athirst, 
come  :  for  he  that  testifieth  these  things  saith.  surely  I  come 
quickly.  Amen  :  even  so,  come.  Lord  Jesus  ! '  '■"* — Letter 
on  the  Prophecies,  written  to  Mr.  JVeslei/,  A.  D.  1755. 

From  the  Rev.  Thomas  Coke,  LL.D. 

(Born  A.  D.  1747;  died  1814.) 

"  Near,  even  at  the  door,  is  the  great  day  of  judgment. 
The  period  of  time  which  yet  remains  we  know  is  short ; 
how  short,  who  can  tell  ?  We  ought  to  be  in  constant  and 
hourly  expectation  of  it.  At  the  coming  of  Christ  to  avenge 
and  deliver  his  faithful  people,  the  faith  of  his  coming  will 
in  a  great  measure  be  lost.  Chronological  calculation,  and 
the  general  appearance  of  the  world,  all  conspire  to  tell  us 
that  the  events  of  the  latter  days  are  even  come  upon  us, 
and  tiiat  the  time  of  God's  controversy  with  the  earth  is 
near  at  hand.  It  is  already  on  the  wing.  If  these  things 
are  insufficient  to  alarm  the  guilty,  neither  will  they  be  per- 
suaded though  one  rose  from  the  dead." — Coke's  Com- 
ine)itari/. 

*  Fletclicr'a  Works,  vol.  x. 


346  ONE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 


From  the  Rev.  J.  Watts. 

(Of  Gcnesco,  N.  Y.) 

"  The  doctrine  .  .  .  that  the  earth  -will  not  be  annihUated 
by  the  general  conflagration,  but  purified,  and  restored  to 
its  pristine  beauty  and  glory,  and  become  the  everlasting 
abode  of  the  saints,  cannot  tail  to  intensely  interest  every 
reflecting  mind.  There  is  inspiration  in  the  thought  that 
the  ultimate  and  eternal  abode  of  the  saints  will  not  be  a 
land  of  ' dimness  and  mystery  beyond  all  comprehension,' 
but  '  that  tliere  will  be  beauty  to  delight  the  eye,  and  music 
to  regale  the  ear,  and  the  comforts  that  spring  from  all  the 
charities  of  intercourse  between  man  and  man,  holding  con- 
verse as  they  now  do  on  earth,  and  gladdening  each  other 
with  the  benignant  smiles  that  play  on  the  human  counte- 
nance, or  the  accents  of  kindness  that  fall  in  soft  and  sooth- 
ing melody  from  the  human  voice; '  that  the  earth,  instead  of 
being  annihilated  by  the  conflagration  which  awaits  it,  will 
be,  by  Him  who  called  it  into  being  in  the  beginning. 


'  renewed,  impi-oved 


With  fertile  vale,  and  wood  of  fertile  bough, 
And  streams  of  milk  and  honey,  flowing  song. 
And  mountains  tinctured  with  perpetual  green; 
In  clime  and  season  fruitful  as  at  first. 
When  Adam  woke,  unfiillen,  in  Paradise, 
And  God  shall  from  the  fount  of  native  light 
A  handful  take  of  beams,  and  clothe  the  sun 
Again  in  glory ;  and  send  forth  the  moon 
To  borrow  thence  her  wonted  rays,  and  lead 
Her  stars,  the  virgin  daughters  of  the  sky.'  " 

-HilVs  Saint's  Inheritance,  p.  270.     A.  D.  1853. 


TESTIMONY    OF   SCOTCH   PRESBYTEKIANS, 

"There  are  few  points  in  theology  which  do  not  receive 
fresh  illustration  from  pre-millennialism.  The  special  truths 
of  Calvinism,  which  the  millenarian  theory  illustrates  and 
consolidates,  are  the  truths  concerning  the  person  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Himself  it  magnifies  and  honors.  His 
work,  his  ofiices,  his  kingdom,  are  what  it  sheds  its  special 
light  upon.  These  it  brings  out  with  a  completeness 
entirely  its  own;  not  only  drawing  out  their  proper  bril- 
liance by  adjusting  the  proplictic  telescope  to  its  right  focus, 
but  presenting  them  on  various  sides,  and  enabling  us  to 
contemplate  them  in  manifold  aspects. 


TESTIMONY    OF   SCOTCU   PRESBYTERIANS.  347 

'•On  the  other  hand,  post-millenarianism  maims  and 
narrows  these  glorious  doctrines.  The  full  glory  of  Christ 
the  Prophet,  Christ  the  Priest,  Christ  the  Iving,  it  cannot 
set  forth,  according  to  the  complete  purpose  of  the  Father. 
The  full  glory  of  the  church,  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's  Wife, 
the  true  Eve  of  the  second  Adam,  the  Heir  of  all  things,  it 
fails  to  declare.  The  eternal  design  of  Jehovah  respecting 
his  kingdom  here, —  respecting  the  government  of  creation, 

—  respecting  the  earthly  and  the  heavenly, —  the  rulers  and 
the  ruled, —  Israel  and  the  nations, —  it  sets  aside  as  carnal. 

'•  So  far  from  dislocating  theology,  our  doctrine  brings  in 
a  new  principle  of  cohesion  between  all  its  parts.  So  far 
from  mutilating  truth,  or  disfiguring,  or  unsettlinf;,  it 
consolidates,  it  beautifies,  it  fills  it  up.  It  completes  the 
whole  circle  of  divine  truth,  which  otherwise  would  be  un- 
finished and  broken.  It  points  to  the  time  which  shall  bring 
back  heaven  to  earth,  which  shall  satisfy  the  church's  hopes, 
which  shall  meet  the  feverish  cravings  of  humanity  after 
the  true  and  real,  and  silence  forever  creation's  bitter  groans." 

—  Com'uKj  and  Kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesns,  pp.  428 — 430. 

From  the  late  Thomas  Chalmers,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"Above  all,  let  us  wait  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of 
man,  and  let  my  constant  attitude  be  that  of  one  who  look- 
eth  for  the  Saviour."  —  Sabbath  Readinfjs.  vol.  i.,  p.  108. 

"  Let  us  wait  for  the  coming  of  our  Lord,  who  will  de- 
stroy all  adversaries,  and  will  dissipate  every  darkening 
influence  by  the  brightness  of  his  appearance.  In  his  light 
we  shall  clearly  see  light.  And  I  desire  to  cherish  a  more 
habitual  and  practical  faith  than  heretofore  in  that  coming 
which  even  the  first  Christians  were  called  to  hope  for  with 
all  earnestness,  even  though  many  centuries  were  to  elapse 
ere  the  hope  could  be  realized :  and  how  much  more  we, 
who  are  so  much  nearer  to  this  great  fulfilment  than  at  the 
time  when  they  believed  !  "  — lb.,  p.  oil. 

For  Dr.  Chalmers'  views  on  the  renovated  earth  sec  p. 
251. 


348  one  hundred  witnesses. 

From  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Hewitsox. 

(Late  Minister  of  Dirleton.     Born  1812;  died  1850.) 

"  I  am  fully  convinced  of  the  nearness  of  the  time  when 
the  Lord  shall  come  Avith  his  saints  to  reign  over  the  earth. 
This  conclusion  I  have  reached,  after  having  been  long 
bound  down  bj  prejudice  and  inattention  to  God's  prophetic 
word,  under  the  yoke  of  what  I  now  sec  to  be  unscriptural 
and  ill-founded  opinions.  The  I'est  of  God's  people  is  near 
at  hand."  —  Written  to  a  friend^  A.  D.  1842.  Memoirs. 
p.  86. 

"The  more  I  attend  to  the  'word  of  prophecy,'  the 
deeper  grows  my  conviction  that  the  coming  of  the  Lord 
and  the  resurrection  of  his  saints  are  near  at  hand.  As 
you  have  observed,  the  adoption  of  pre-millenarian  vicAvs 
gives  a  new  aspect  to  everything  both  present  and  future. 
It  intensifies  the  feeling  that  we  are  pilgrims ;  it  puts  us  in 
the  attitude  of  expectation  which  Paul  maintained  as  he 
wrote,  '  From  whence  also  we  look  for  the  Saviour ; '  it 
abridges  our  earthly  hopes,  for  '  we  know  not  what  a  day 
may  bring  forth ; '  our  prayers  are  now  offered  up  for  the 
gathering  in  of  the  elect,  and  that  we  may  be  counted 
Avorthy  to  escape  the  things  which  are  coming  to  pass,  and 
to  stand  before  the  Son  of  man."  —  lb. 

From  Rev.  Robert  S.  Candlish,  D.D. 

(Of  Edinburgh.) 

"We  are  nearer  the  troublous  times  of  the  end  of  the 
world ;  and  there  are  signs  and  tokens  of  a  shaking  and 
convulsion,  which,  I  trust,  I  do  not  err  when  I  compare  and 
even  identify  Avith  the  predicted  indication  of  the  second  and 
glorious  coming  of  the  Son  of  God  in  his  kingdom."  — 
Lon.  Quar.  .lour,  of  Prophecy,  p.  115.     A.  D.   1850. 

From  Rev.  William  Anderson. 

(Minister  of  the  Relief  Church,  John-st.,  Glasgow.) 

"Is  the  speedy  resurrection  of  the  saints  to  be  deprecated 
as  an  evil?  Is  it  a  matter  of  holy  propriety  that  the  disci- 
ple should  deprecate  the  speedy  advent  of  his  Lord  ?  —  Ah  ! 
I  cannot  help  suspecting  that  there  is  something  dangerously 
wrong  with  the  heart,  Avherever  these  expectations  are  op- 


TESTIMONY    OF    SCOTCH    PRESBYTERIANS.  349 


posed  with  sneers,  or  with  attenuated,  artificial,  fallacious 
reasoning.  "Were  the  church  as  a  bride,  faithful  in  her  love, 
she  would  rather  treat  with  indulgence  the  report  of  the 
speedy  return  of  her  betrothed,  than  bend  her  Avhole  strength 
to  the  proof  that  it  is  a  long  journey  on  which  the  bride- 
groom has  departed."  —  Apu/orjij  for  Millcnarian  Doc- 
trine, p.  13.     A.  D.  1842. 

"In  the  time  of  the  flourishing  of  the  church,  there 
shall  be  no  land  which  geography  may  include  where  he 
Avill  not  find  her  rule  established.  Iler  empire  shall  be 
identified  with  the  universe;  nor  shall  it  ever  know  decline. 
.  .  .  No  faithful  follower  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  denied  the  sun- 
shine of  the  millennial  summer.  The  dead  shall  be  raised 
from  their  graves  to  participate  the  victor}'.  Blessed  and 
holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in  the  First  Resurrection  !      TiiY 

KINGDOM    come!" — /^.,  p.  52. 

From  the  Rev.  R.  Macdonald. 

(Of  Bl.airgowrie.) 

'•Man's  residence  was  prepared  before  he  himself  was 
created.  His  opening  eyes  at  once  beheld  a  world  as  richly 
furnished  as  it  was  exquisitely  finished.  So  sliall  it  be  in  Para- 
dise Restored."  —  Lessons  from  the  Past.    Pub.  in  1848. 

"  While  we  have  a  Saviour  already  come  to  look  to  in 
faith,  we  have  also  a  Saviour  cominrj  to  look  for  in  hope. 
Christ  crucified  in  the  past  must  never  be  dissociated  in  our 
minds  from  Christ  glorified  in  tiie  future, —  the  command 
being,  '  Ye  do  show  the  Lord's  death  till  he  come.'  Believer, 
seek  to  realize  in  this  matter  your  duty  and  privilege. 
While  saying  with  Paul,  'God  forbid  that  I  should  glory, 
save  in  tlic  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,'  be  ever  found, 
also  like  him,  '  looking  for  the  blessed  hope  and  glorious 
appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ.' 
Yes,  Avait,  watcli,  work,  until  he  come,  for  '  the  night  is  far 
spent,  and  the  day  is  at  hand.'  Keep  sleep  from  your  eyes, 
keep  oil  in  your  lamp,  be  ever  on  the  outlook,  and  at  a 
moment's  warning  be  ready  to  go  forth  to  meet  the  bride- 
groom Avhen  he  conieth.  Beware,  and  especially  in  times 
like  these,  of  yielding  to  earthliness,  or  to  impatience,  or  to 
faint-heartedness,  or  to  sloth,  for  '  the  Lord  is  at  hand, '  and 
'  redemption  draweth  nigh.'  The  very  things  which,  in  our 
30 


350  ONE    nUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

day,  are  so  solemn  and  alarming  as  events,  are  yet  most 
joyful  as  signs,  intimating,  as  they  do,  that  the  winter  shall 
soon  be  past,  the  rain  be  over  and  gone,  the  flowei's  appear 
on  the  earth,  the  time  of  the  singing  of  birds  be  come,  and  the 
voice  of  the  turtle  be  heard  in  our  land."  —  Loii.  Qtiar. 
Jour,  of  Prophecy,  vol.  i.,  p.  206. 

From  the  Rev.  James  Bonar. 

(Of  Greenock.) 

"Men  dream  that  the  world  is  to  be  renovated  with  all 
the  gentleness  of  spring,  Avhen  it  loosens  the  fetters  of 
Avinter  by  a  break.  But  Chalmers  had  studied  the  word 
more  accurately  when  he  wrote,  '  Of  this  I  am  satisfied, 
that  the  next  coming  will  be  a  coming,  not  to  the  final  judg- 
ment, but  a  coming  to  usher  in  the  millennium.  I  utterly 
despair  of  the  universal  prevalence  of  Christianity  as  the 
result  of  a  missionary  process.  But,  without  slackening  our 
obligations  to  help  forward  the  great  cause,  I  look  for  its 
conclusive  establishment  through  a  widening  passage  of 
desolations  and  judgments,  with  the  utter  demolition  of  our 
present  civil  and  ecclesiastical  structures.'  Yes,  beloved. 
'Overturn  !  overturn  !  overturn  !  '  is  the  watchword  of  our 
approaching  Lord ;  and  now  that  we  feel  the  ground  heav- 
ing beneath  us,  ought  we  not  the  more  confidently  to  expect. 
the  more  eagerly  to  hope  for,  Him  who,  instead  of  man's 
balance  of  power,  set  aside  forever,  will  stretch  over  the 
nations  the  sceptre  of  righteousness,  and  reign  as  Prince  of 
peace."— A.  D.  1855. 

From  the  Rev.  Horatius  Bonar,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

(Of  Kelso.) 

' '  The  church  says,  .  .  .  INIy  kingdom  is  at  hand  ;  my  sun  is 
about  to  rise ;  I  bhall  soon  see  the  King  in  his  beauty ;  I 
shall  soon  be  keeping  festival,  and  the  joy  of  my  promised 
morning  will  make  me  forget  that  I  ever  wept." 

"  Beyond  the  death-bed,  and  beyond  the  grave,  she  sees 
resurrection.  Beyond  the  broken  hearts  and  severed  bands 
of  time,  she  realizes  and  clasps  the  eternal  love-links ;  be- 
yond the  troubles  of  the  hour,  and  beyond  the  storm  that  is 
to  Avreck  the  world,  she  casts  her  eye,  and  feels  trans- 
ported into  the  kingdom  that  cannot  be  moved,  as  if  already 


TESTIMONY   OF   SCOTCH   PRESBYTERIANS.  351 


she  had  taken  up  her  abode  in  the  New  Salem,  the  city  of 
peace  and  righteousness."  —  Mornbi;]  of  Jnij.  pp.  8,  U. 

"  This  is  our  night-watch.  To  this  the  Master  has  ap- 
pointed us  during  his  absence.  '  Wa/ch  ye,  therefore  ;  for 
ye  know  not  when  the  master  of  the  house  cometh,  at  even, 
or  at  midnight,  or  at  the  cock-crowing,  or  in  the  morning  : 
lest  coming  suddenly  he  find  you  sleeping.  And  what  I 
say  unto  you  [  say  unto  all,  Wdtch.'  (Mark  13  :  85 — 37.) 
It  is  the  prospect  of  morning  and  of  the  Master's  return 
that  keeps  us  watching, —  especially  in  these  last  days,  when 
watch  after  watcii  has  come  and  gone,  and  he  has  not  yet 
arrived.  '  His  going  forth  is  prepared  as  the  morning 
(IIos.  6:3);  and  that  innriibig  cannot  now  be  distant.^ 

"  The  church  must  fulfil  her  nisiht- watch.  Whether  Ions 
or  short,  perilous  or  easy,  she  must  fulfil  it.  It  is  u-(tlchin(j 
to  which  she  is  specially  called  ;  and  sadly  will  she  belie 
her  profession,  as  well  as  disobey  her  Lord,  if  she  iratr/ics 
not.  She  need  not  think  to  substitute  other  duties  for  this, 
as  more  needful,  more  important,  or  more  in  character. 
She  dare  not  say,  '  I  love,  I  believe,  I  pray.  I  praise,  why 
should  I  also  vatch  ?  will  not  these  do  instead  of  watching, 
or  is  not  watching  included  in  these  ?  '  ller  Lord  has  bid- 
den her  7ratch,  and  no  otlier  duty,  no  other  grace,  can  be 
a  substitute  or  an  excuse  for  this. 

"  She  is  to  believe  ;  but  that  is  not  all  ;  she  is  also  to  watch. 
She  is  to  rejoice ;  but  that  is  not  all ;  she  is  also  to 
watch.  She  is  to  love  ;  but  that  is  not  all ;  she  is  also  to 
watch.  She  is  to  wait ;  but  that  is  not  all ;  she  is  also 
to  watch.  She  is  to  long;  but  that  is  not  all;  she  is 
also  to  iratch.  This  is  to  be  her  special  attitude,  and 
nothing  can  compensate  for  it.  By  this  she  is  to  be  known 
in  all  ages,  as  the  watching  one.  By  this  the  world  is  to  be 
made  to  feel  the  difference  between  itself  and  her.  By  this 
she  is  specially  to  show  how  truly  she  feels  herself  to  be  a 
stranger  here. 

"  Men  ask  her,  Why  stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  Her 
reply  is,  '  I  am  watching.'  Men  taunt  her,  and  say.  Why 
this  unrcstfulness  ?  Iler  reply  is,  '  I  am  watching.'  Men 
think  it  strange  that  she  runs  not  with  them  to  the  same 
excess  of  riot.  (1  Peter  4  :  4.)  She  tells  them.  '  I  am 
watching.'     They  ask   her  to  come    fortii    and  join    their 


352  ONE  HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

gayety,  to  come  forth  and  sing  their  songs,  to  come  forth  and 
taste  their  pleasures,  that  thus  they  may  teach  her  to  forget 
her  sorrows.  She  refuses,  saying,  '  I  dare  not,  I  am  Avatch- 
ing.'  The  scoffer  mocks  her,  and  says,  Where  is  the  prom- 
ise of  his  coming?  She  heeds  not,  but  continues  watching, 
and  clasps  her  hope  more  firmly. 

"  Sometimes,  too,  a  feeble,  doubting,  or,  it  maybe,  incon- 
sistent saint,  asks,  in  wonder,  How  are  you  so  strong,  so 
hardy,  so  able  for  the  struggle,  so  successful  in  the  battle  ? 
She  answers,  '  I  watch.'  Or  he  asks,  How  do  you  keep  up 
a  tone  so  elevated,  and  maintain  a  walk  so  close,  so  consist- 
ent, so  unearthly?  She  answers,  'I  watch.'  Or  he  asks, 
How  do  you  overcome  sloth,  and  selfishness,  and  love  of 
case ;  or  check  fretfulncss  and*  anxiety,  or  gain  the  victory 
over  a  delaying  spirit?  She  answers,  'I  watch.'  Or  he 
asks.  How  do  you  make  head  against  your  fears,  and  chal- 
lenge danger,  and  defy  enemies,  and  keep  under  the  flesh  ? 
She  replies,  'I  watch.'  Or  he  asks.  How  do  you  Avrestle 
with  your  griefs,  and  dry  up  your  tears,  and  heal  your 
wounds,  nay,  glory  in  tribulation?     She  answers,  '  I  watch.' 

"  0,  what  this  watching  can  do,  to  one  who  understands  it 
aright !  Faith  alone  "will  not  do.  Love  alone  will  not  do. 
E.xpectation  alone  will  not  do.  Obedience  alone  will  not 
do.      There  must  be  vatchiiiQ. 

"  And  this  watching  takes  for  granted  the  suddenness  and 
uncertainty  of  the  day  of  the  Lord.  It  does  not  say,  the 
Lord  inust  come  in  my  day ;  but  it  says,  the  Lord  may 
come  in  my  day,  therefore  I  must  be  on  the  lookout.  This 
may  come  is  the  secret  of  a  watchful  spirit.  Without  it  we 
cannot  watch.  We  may  love,  and  hope,  and  wait,  but  we 
cannot  watch.  Our  lamps  are  to  be  always  trimmed. 
Why  ?  Not  merely  because  the  Bridegroom  is  to  come,  but 
because  we  know  not  Jioio  soon  he  may  come.  Our  loins 
are  to  be  always  girt  up.  Why  ?  Not  simply  because  we 
know  that  there  is  to  be  a  coming ;  but  because  we  know 
not  when  that  coming  is  to  be." — ii.,  pp.  12 — 16. 

From  the  Rev.  Andrew  Bonar. 

"  Those  that  deny  the  pre-millennial  coming  .  .  .  have  led 
themselves  and  others  to  e.xpect  that  at  this  present  time,  in 
this  dispensation  that  precedes  the  Lord's  coming,  the  preach- 


TESTIMONY    OF    SCOTCH    PRESBYTERIANS.  353 

ing  of  the  Gospel  is  to  be  followed  up  with  national  conver- 
sions, or,  at  least,  conversion  and  reformation  in  the  dense 
masses  of  the  worlds  population.'"  —  Quoted  from  Broun 
on  the  Sec.  Ad.,  p.  318. 

"lie  has  heard  missionaries  'regret  deeply  that  the 
church  at  home  should  be  dazzled  by  the  rain  liope  of 
conversions  on  a  grand  scale.'  If  the  missionary  would 
'see  that  the  gather nnj  out  of  the  elect  is  his  so/e  ho/)e,^ 
he  would  be  '  far  less  disheartened  by  opposition  tluin  wlien 
he  vainly  expected  every  day  to  see  symptoms  of  national 
and  universal  conversion.^  '  —  lb.,  p.  317. 

From  the  Rev.  Patrick  Fairbairn. 

(Of  Saltern.) 

"  Man's  original  inheritance  was  a  lordship  or  dominion, 
stretching  over  the  whole  earth.  .  .  .  When  he  fell,  he  fell 
from  his  dominion,  as  well  as  from  purity:  the  inheritance 
departed  from  him.  .  .  .  What  can  the  redemption  of  the 
inheritance  be  but  the  rescuing  of  this  earth  from  the  mani- 
fold ills  which  through  the  instrumentality  of  Satan  have 
come  to  lodge  in  its  bosom, —  purging  its  elements  of  all 
mischief  and  disorder. —  changing  it,  from  being  the  vale  of 
tears  and  charnel-house  of  death,  into  a  paradise  of  life  and 
blessing, —  restoring  to  man,  himself  then  redeemed  and 
fitted  for  the  honor,  the  sceptre  of  a  real  dominion  over  all 
its  fulness, —  in  a  word,  rendering  it  in  character  and  design 
what  it  was  on  creation's  morn,  when  the  sons  of  God 
shouted  for  joy."  —  Typology  of  Scripture,  vol.  i.,  p.  281. 
A.  D.  1852. 

From  the  Rev.  George  Gilfillan. 

(Of  Dundee.) 

"Among  the  doctrines  peculiar  to  the  Jews,  and  inspir- 
ing their  genius,  we  may  enumerate  the  unity  of  the  divine 
nature,  their  idea  of  the  divine  omnipi'esence,  their  expect- 
ation of  a  Messiah,  their  doctrine  of  a  millennium,  and  their 
views  of  a  future  state."  — Bards  of  the  Bible,  p.  28.  A. 
D.  1851. 

"The  doctrine  of  a  millennium  must  surely  have  been  a 

pure  emanation  from  heaven.     As  a  mere  dream,  we  could 

conceive  it  crossing  the  brain  of  a  visionary,  or  quickening 

the  eager  pen  of  a  poet  as  he  wrote  it  down.      But,  as  a 

30* 


354  OXE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

distinct,  prominent  and  fixed  prospect,  in  the  onward  view 
of  the  philanthropist — as  anything  more  than  a  castle  in 
the  clouds  —  it  seems  to  have  been  let  down,  like  Jacob's 
ladder,  from  a  higher  region.  Even  granting  that  it  was 
only  a  tradition  wliich  inspired  Virgil's  Pollio,  it  was  proba- 
bly a  tradition  which  had  floated  from  above.  To  the  same 
region  Ave  may  trace  the  allusions  to  a  millennium  which 
may  be  found,  more  or  less  distinctly,  in  the  many  mytholo- 
gies of  the  world.  But  in  Scripture  alone  do  we  find  this 
doctrine  inwrought  with  the  whole  system,  pervading  all  its 
books,  and,  while  thoroughly  severed,  on  the  one  hand, 
from  absurdity  and  mysticism,  expressed,  on  the  other,  in  a 
profusion  of  figure,  and  painted  in  the  softest  and  richest 
colors.  Did  the  idea  of  a  happy  world,  whether  communi- 
cated to  the  soul  of  Virgil  by  current  tradition,  or  caught 
from  the  lips  of  some  wandering  Jew,  or  formed  by  the  mere 
projection  of  the  favorite  thought  of  a  golden  age  upon  the 
canvas  of  the  future,  raise  him  for  a  time  above  himself, 
and  inspire  one  strain  matchless  among  Pagan  poets?  What 
a  provision,  then,  must  have  been  made  for  the  production 
of  a  world  of  poetry,  from  the  thick  gleams  and  glimpses 
of  distant  glory,  scattered  over  the  pages  of  all  the  bards  of 
Israel!  How  sublime  the  conception,  in  its  own  original 
fountains,  reposing  under  the  tree  of  life,  the  leaves  of 
which  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations  !  and  especially  as 
we  find  it  flaming  around  the  lips  of  the  prophets  of  God, 
who,  seeing  in  the  distance  the  wolf  dwelling  with  the  lamb, 
and  the  leopard  with  the  kid ;  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's 
house  exalted  above  the  mountains  and  established  above 
the  hills ;  the  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  from  God,  as  a 
bride  adorned  for  her  husband;  earth  uplifted  from  the 
neighborhood  of  hell  to  that  of  heaven ;  the  smoke  of  its 
every  cottage  rising  like  the  smoke  of  an  altar  ;  peace  brood- 
ing on  its  oceans ;  righteousness  running  in  its  streams  ;  and 
the  very  bells  of  its  horses,  bearing  '  Holiness  to  the  Lord ' 
—  leaped  up  exulting  at  the  sight,  and  sent  forward,  from 
their  Avatch-towers,  a  far  cry  of  recognition  and  enthusiasm, 
'  Arise,  shine ;  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  is  risen  upon  thee.'  '  Who  are  these  that  fly  as  a 
cloud,  and  as  the  doves  to  their  wmdows? '  '  The  sun  shall 
be  no  more  thy  light  by  day ;  neither  for  brightness  shall 
the  moon  give  light  unto  thee.     Thy  sun  shall  no  more  go 


TESTIMONY    OF    SCOTCII    PRESBYTERIANS.  355 


down,  neither  shall  thy  moon  withdraw  itself;  for  the  Lord 
shall  be  thine  cvcrlnstinf!;  light,  and  the  days  of  thy  mourn- 
ing shall  bo  ended.-  Who  but  writers  in  the  highest  sense 
INSPIRED  could  often  assume,  or  long  sustain,  such  strains 
as  these  ?  Who,  but  they,  could  keep  so  steadily  separate 
from  the  deep  clouds  of  the  present  a  prospect  so  distinct 
and  sublime  ?  Who,  uninlluenced  by  the  Spirit  of  the 
Lord,  woulil  have  dared,  not  merely  as  a  poetic  conception, 
but  as  a  pro]ihetical  announcement,  to  predict  what  all 
history  and  all  experience  would  seem  to  stamp  with  the 
wildest  print  of  Utopia?  'Few,  few  have  striven  to  make 
earth  heaven,'  but  as  few,  unenlightened  from  on  high,  have 
ever  long  grasped  or  detained  the  brilliant  possibility.  It 
seems,  at  least,  the  last  refinement  of  philosophical  conjec- 
ture. And  yet,  in  the  Hebrew  prophets,  we  find  it  closing 
every  vista,  irradiating  every  gloom,  lying,  like  a  bright 
western  heaven,  at  the  termination  of  every  prophetic  day ; 
coloring  the  gorgeous  page  of  Isaiah  ;  gleaming  through 
the  willows  where  Jeremiah  had  hung  his  harp  ;  glaring  on 
the  wild  eye  of  Ezckiel,  who  turns  from  his  wheels,  '  so 
high  that  they  were  dreadful,'  to  show  the  waters  of  the 
sanctuary  becoming  an  immeasurable  and  universal  stream; 
mingling  with  the  stern  denunciations  of  Micah ;  tinging 
with  golden  edges  the  dreams  of  Daniel;  and  casting  tran- 
sient rays  of  transcendent  beauty  amid  the  obscure  and 
troubled  tragedy  of  the  Apocalypse."  — 76.,  pp.  31 — 33. 

"If  the  church  is  to  proceed  at  its  present  creeping  and 
crippled  rate.  Avhen,  we  ask,  is  its  millennium  to  dawn? 
Shall  it  ever  ?  No  alternative  can  we  see,  but  Jesus  ad- 
venient,  and  prayer  and  work  done  in  this  prospect,  or 
despair." — Ih..  p.  348. 

"How  beautiful,  then,  shall  seem,  renewed  and  glorified, 
this  '  great  globe,  the  world  '  !  The  promises  of  ten  thou- 
sand days  of  loveliness  in  the  past,  of  innumerable  mornings 
and  evenings,  or  nights  trembling  all  over  with  starry  pulses 
of  glory,  shall  be  realized  in  the  permanent  ;\spects  of  earth 
and  of  sky.  The  prophecies  of  all  genuine  poets,  since  the 
world  began,  shall  have  a  living  fulfilment  in  the  general 
countenance  and  character  and  heart  of  man.  Nor  shall 
the  spirit  of  pi'ogress  and  aspiring  change  be  extinct.  To 
meet  the  new  discoveries  below,  and   the   new  stars  and 


356  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

constellations  flashing  down  always  from  the  Infinite  above, 
or  drawing  nearer  and  becoming  brighter  in  the  mystic 
dances  of  the  heavens,  men's  minds  must  arise  in  sympatliy 
and  brighten  in  unison."  — lb. 

From  Eev.  James  Hamilton,  D.D.,  F.L.S. 

(English  ludependeut.) 

"Whilst  the  historian  is  borne  back  to  ages  so  remote 
that  gray  tradition  cannot  recollect  them,  and,  athwart  obliv- 
ious centuries,  in  nooks  of  brightness  and  in  oases  of 
light,  sees  the  patriarch  groups  clear,  vivid,  and  familiar 
as  the  household  scenes  of  yesterday,  there  is  also  a  picture 
sketched  for  the  explorers  of  the  future.  For,  whilst  the 
Apocalyptic  curtain  slowly  rises  —  whilst,  through  its  fringe 
of  fire,  the  New  Jerusalem  comes  down  from  heaven ;  and, 
gazing  on  the  pearly  gates,  and  peaceful  streets,  and  bowers 
of  sanctity,  our  planet  can  scarce  believe  that  she  is  gazing 
on  herself — that  this  is  old  mother  earth  grown  young 
again  —  that  this  vision  of  holiness  and  bliss  is  nothing 
more  than  Paradise  restored  —  that  '  new, '  but  ancient 
'earth,'  in  which  dwelleth  righteousness." — The  Lamp 
and  the  Lantern,  p.  55. — London,  A.  D.  1853. 


TESTIMOlSnr   OF  MINISTERS    OP  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENG- 
LAND. 

"  The  Church  of  England  teaches  her  members,  in  the 
funeral  service,  to  pray  that  '  God  would  shortly  accom- 
plish the  number  of  His  elect,  and  hasten  the  coming  of 
His  kingdom  : '  [Beseeching  Thee  that  it  may  please  Thee, 
of  Thy  gracious  goodness,  shortly  to  accomplish  the  num- 
ber of  Thine  elect,  and  to  hasten  Thy  kingdom*  that 
we,  with  all  that  are  departed  in  the  true  faith  of  Thy  holy 
name,  may  have  our  perfect  consummation,  both  in  body 
and  soul,  in  Thy  eternal  and  everlasting  glory,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord, — Amen] :  and  this  leads  us  to  one 
blessed  result  of  Christ's  coming.  .  .  .  Death  is  gain  to  a 
believer  (Phil.  1 :  21)  ;  it  is  among  his  privileges ;  but  it  is 
the  resurrection  at  the  coming  of  Christ  that  completes  his 
happiness,  with  that  of  the  church  of  Christ  at  large." — 
Bickersteth. 

*  The  words  in  Italic  are  omitted  in  tlie  American  church  service. 


testimony  of  the  church  of  england.       357 
From  the  Rev.  C.  D.  Maitland. 

(Quoted  "from  a  late  sermon,"  and  endorsed  by  liim  in  a  discourse  preached 
at  St.  James,  Brighton,  A.  t).  1831.) 

"The  voice  of  prophecy,  the  finger  of  Providence,  the 
wickedness  of  the  Avickcd.  and  the  strange  expectation  in  the 
heart  of  all  men,  tell  us  that  lie  is  coming.  xVlready  the 
streaming  glory  of  Ilis  approach  has  shot  across  the  deep 
darkness  of  our  world.  Already  the  thunder  of  His  wheels 
is  echoing  over  the  distant  fields  of  light.  Yes !  lie.  the 
Holy  One,  whoso  voice  is  harmony,  whose  smile  is  lite, 
whose  Avill  is  law,  and  whose  law  is  love,  is  coming !  And 
murder,  and  oppression,  and  superstition,  and  ignorance, 
shall  die  at  His  feet  —  His  throne  shall  be  established  in 
righteousness,  and  His  people  shall  dwell  in  peace  —  man 
shall  be  restored  to  his  right  position  in  the  world :  the 
world  to  its  right  position  in  the  universe ;  and  the  illimit- 
able universe  shall  break  forth  into  joy  and  praise  over  a 
world  that  was  lost,  but  is  found !  0  Thou,  who  art  the 
joy  of  the  universe,  the  Saviour  of  the  lost,  whose  right  it 
is  to  reign,  come,  wear  Thy  many  crowns !  Thy  saints  are 
waiting  for  Thy  coming  !  The  earth  groans  for  Thy  com- 
ing !  Hell  is  moved  at  Thy  coming  !  Heaven  is  silent  for 
Thy  coming  !  '  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly  ! ' '" — Iti- 
v(s/if/(t^or,  vol.  i.,  pp.  212,  213. 

Fiiojt  THE  Rev.  Joseph  D'Arcy  Sirr,  A.M.,  M.R.I.A. 

(Rector  of  Kilcoleman.) 

"Till  this  event  arrive,  we  shall  be  torn  with  dissensions, 
led  astray  by  every  error  that  arises,  and  polluted  with  evils. 
It  becomes  us  now,  with  an  irrepressible  energy,  with 
entreaties  that  admit  of  no  denial,  to  cry  mightily  to  the 
Lord  to  restore  His  comforts  unto  us,  and  revisit  His  vine ; 
for,  The  Lord  is  iiifjJi.  even  at  the  doo?'S,  to  take  account 
of  His  servants." — First  Resurrection,  p.  5.  A.  D.  1833. 
"  '  The  Lord  my  God  shall  come,  and  all  His  saints  with 
Him,'  to  reign  on  earth,  reclaimed  to  His  authority,  res- 
cued from  the  usurper's  grasp,  and  made  new."' — Ibid., 
p.  6. 

"I  might  pass  through  all  the  prophets,  and  show,  from 
their  concurrent  testimony,  that  the  appearing  of  our  great 
God  and  Saviour,  as  described  by  them,  is  ever  set  forth  as 


358  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

leading  to  many  wonderful  results,  affecting  our  world,  as 
ushering  in  a  long  reign  of  righteousness,  and  the  continu- 
ous unremitted  exercise  of  true  judgment.  When,  there- 
fore, I  express  my  belief  that  Christ  will  come  to  judge  the 
living,  I  express  my  belief  that  He  will  come  to  execute  all 
that  judgment  on,  and  to  exercise  all  that  justice  in,  the 
earth,  Avhich  the  prophets  assure  me  He  will  do." — Ibid., 
p.  34. 

From  the  Rev.  Hugh  McNeile,  D.D. 

(Hon.  Canon  of  Chester,  and  Incumbent  of  St.  Paul's,  Toxteth,  Liverpool.) 

"The  Second  Advent  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ"  is  "copiously  spoken  of  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
And  no  wonder ;  for  it  is  the  crowning  subject  of  all,  tow- 
ards which  every  intermediate  subject  tends.  It  is  the 
final  chorus,  in  which  all  the  harmony  of  prophecy  com- 
bines. It  is  the  ocean  into  which  all  the  streams  of  Reve- 
lation empty  themselves  as  their  great  home.  Sin  and 
misery  till  He  comes ;  righteousness  and  happiness  at  His 
coming  !  Groanings  and  agony  till  He  comes ;  songs  of 
triumph  at  His  coming !  Faint  glimmerings  of  hope, 
amidst  surrounding  and  prevailing  darkness,  and  desolation, 
and  despair,  till  He  comes;  everlasting  light,  and  life,  and 
joy,  and  love,  at  His  coming !  These  arc  the  cadences 
which  continually  fall  upon  our  ear  from  the  sacred  harp." 
—  Sermons  on  the  Advent,  p.  100. 

"This  fallen  world!  .  .  .  Must  it  continue  so  forever ? 
Shall  the  vessel,  so  marred  on  the  wheel,  be  never  re-made 
by  the  hand  of  the  potter  ?  Hearken  to  the  glorious  an- 
swer which  the  Holy  Ghost  has  given  to  this  question :  the 
creation  itself,  also,  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage 
of  cormption,  into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God  (Rom.  8  :  21).  Yes,  there  shall  be  deliverance 
at  the  coming  and  kingdom  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whom 
the  heavens  must  receive,  until  the  times  of  restitution 
OF  ALL  THINGS,  which  God  hath  spoken  by  the  mouth  of 
all  his  holy  prophets,  since  the  world  began  (Acts  3  :  21). 
Then,  bondage  shall  be  no  more,  but  liberty.  Corruption 
shall  be  no  more,  but  glory.  The  curse  shall  be  no  more, 
but  blessing. 

"  The  Lord  shall  make  all  things  new;  a  new  earth,  new 


TESTIMONY    OF   THE    CHURCH    OF    ENGLAND.  359 

animals,  new  fruits,  the  creation  new ;  so  that  God,  again 
beholding  the  work  of  His  own  hands,  shall  saj,  It  is  very 
good  ! 

"A  new  earth!  TFe,  saith  the  Apostle,  occordi)i(/ lo 
Ills  promise,  look  for  new  hcavois  and  a  new  earth, 
uhere'nt  dwclleth  rifjhfeousness  (2  Pet.  3 :  13).  But 
shall  not  this  earth  be  destroyed  by  fire  ?  Yes,  as  truly  as 
it  was  of  old  by  Avater:  the  apostle  gives  the  parallel.  It 
is  a  fire,  not  to  ainiihilate.  but  to  purify;  and  out  of  it  shall 
arise  the  new  earth,  the  abode  of  everlasting  righteousness, 
according  to  the  promise  of  the  blessed  God.'' — Ibid.,  p.  107. 

From  the  Hon.  and  Rev.  Gerard  T.  Noel,  A.M. 

Is  the  "  vindication  of  the  moral  government  of  God,  by 
the  destruction  of  the  world,  the  real  statement  of  reve- 
lation ?  Has  God  indeed  declared  that  this  material  earth 
shall  be  a  memorial  of  wrath,  but  not  of  mercy?  Is  it  the 
recorded  purpose  of  His  immutable  will  that  the  scene  and 
■place  of  redemption  shall  be  separated  from  the  people  to 
be  redeemed?  That  the  earth,  with  all  its  variety  of  gar- 
niture and  beauty,  once  fitted  to  be  the  birthplace  of  their 
happiness,  and  given  to  them  as  the  patrimony  and  sover- 
eignty of  their  race,  shall  be  torn  away  from  their  posses- 
sion, and  given  up  to  the  avenging  flame?  Is  it  indeed  the 
verdict  of  Revelation, 'that  this  earth,  on  which  the  Redeemer 
walked  and  communed  with  men,  in  the  hour  of  Ilis  humil- 
iation, shall  never  be  the  scene  of  His  fellowship  with  them 
in  the  day  of  His  power  and  His  glory  ?  Did  He,  '  as  a 
wayfiiring  man,  tarry  with  them  only  for  a  night,'  and 
ascend  l)ut  to  return,  in  the  vengeance  of  insulted  majesty, 
to  annihilate  the  scene  on  which  he  endured  this  dishonor?" 
—  Brief  Enqidri/,  p.  7.    A.  D.  1839. 

"The  conviction  has  fastened  strongly  upon  my  mind, 
that  the  honor  of  our  blessed  Lord  and  blaster  is  connect- 
ed, in  a  peculiar  manner,  with  this  renovation  of  the  earth. 
Here  He  endured  shame,  and  here  Satan  has  reigned.  But 
the  crown  belongs  to  Christ,  and  the  kingdom  shall  be 
HIS.  To  this  fact,  surely,  all  the  prophecies  of  the  Old 
Testament  direct  our  views ;  and  every  delineation  of  hap- 
piness whicli  lies  depicted  upon  the  pages  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament borrows  all  its  imagery,  and  derives  all  its  locality, 


360 


ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES, 


from  the  earth  on  which  we  dwell.  Every  blessing, 
indeed,  originates  with  God,  and  is  dependent  upon  a  spirit- 
ual energy,  but  the  scene  on  which  it  operates  is  this  mate- 
rial world.  These  blessings  concentrate  their  mighty  influ- 
ences to  overthrow  idolatry,  superstition,  misrule,  sin,  and 
death.  They  are  connected  with  the  kingly  power  of 
Christ.  They  assure  us  of  His  conquest,  and  invite  the 
earth  to  rejoice  before  her  God.  The  city,  '  built  of  God,' 
and  anticipated  by  those  '  who  have  died  in  faith,' 
'comes  down  from  heaven,^  and  expands  its  splendor 
upon  the  scenery  of  earth.  The  closing  pages  of  llevela- 
tion  replace,  indeed,  our  exiled  feet  in  the  same  Paradise 
from  which  Adam  had  been  driven  forth  a  wanderer  and  a 
criminal.  I  would  venture,  in  fine,  to  ask  with  confidence, 
whether  any  other  felicity  than  the  unbroken  dominion  and 
blessed  presence  of  Chrlcst  upon  the  earth,  be  recorded  as 
a  source  of  expectation  amidst  the  prophetic  pages  of  Scrip- 
ture?"—/^»ic/.,  p.  96. 

"The  miraculous  intercourse  of  heaven  with  earth,  of 
God  with  men,  of  celestial  ministrants  with  men,  is  closely 
interwoven  with  the  wdiole  history  of  four  thousand  years. 
Are  not  these  the  bright  spots  of  human  history,  the  proofs 
of  divine  compassion,  and  the  illustration  of  that  ultimate 
connection  of  heaven  with  earth,  when  the  anointed  Ruler, 
'the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of  lords,'  shall  dwell  in  our 
world,  not,  as  once,  in  the  midst  of  one  nation,  and  by  the 
mysterious  radiance  of  the  cloudy  Shechinah;  but  in  the 
wide  circle  of  the  whole  earth,  and  by  the  glorious  bright- 
ness of  Q.  jiersonal  manifestation?^^ — Ibid.,  p.  63. 

But,  "if  the  reigji  of  Christ  be  not  first  within  onr 
renewed  souls,  we  shall  never  share  it  in  a  renexoed  world. 
If  He  legislate  not  over  our  passions  and  our  affections, 
we  shall  never  bear  rule  in  the  regions  of  His  rescued 
earth.  If  God  the  Holy  Ghost  regenerate  not  our  hearts, 
He  will  never  regenerate  our  bodies.  Our  conformity  to 
Christ  must  be  entire.  We  must  first  be  crucified  ere  we 
can  be  glorified.  His  sceptre  must  be  in  our  hearts  ere 
His  crown  can  rest  upon  our  heads.'''' — Ib'id.,  pp.  124,  125. 


TESTIMONY    OF    TUE    CHURCn    OF    ENGLAND.         361 

From  the  Rev.  Henry  Woodward,  A.M. 

(Hector  of  Fcthard.) 

"It  is  the  peculiar  characteristic  of  the  present  times, 
that  the  reverence  for  all  established  institutions  is  upon  the 
wane  ;  and  that,  amongst  other  instances,  the  fire  of  loyalty 
burns  no  longer  Avith  its  wonted  strength.  May  not  this, 
then,  be  a  further  intimation  that  the  glorious  advent  of 
the  King  of  Kighteousncss  is  near  at  hand?  May  not 
this  be  one  of  the  signs  of  the  Lord's  appearing?  And, 
while  the  stars  in  the  political  firmament  are  losing  their 
lustre,  and  growing  dim  upon  our  sight,  may  we  not  hope 
that  the  great  Luminary,  who  is  to  rule  the  day  of  millen- 
nial blessedness  and  splendor,  is  about  to  j'ise  with  '  heal- 
ing in  his  wings'?" — Essays  on  the  Millennium,  p.  25. 
A.  D.  1840. 

TuE  Hon.  and  Rev.  H.  Montague  Villiers,  M.A. 

(Rector  of  St.  George's,  Bloomsbury,  Eng.) 

"  "Whatever  blame  may  be  attached  to  myself,  or  to  my 
brethren  in  the  ministry,  for  enforcing  the  duty  of  serving 
God  on  other  grounds  than  those  which  the  Scripture  has 
laid  down,  this,  at  any  rate,  must  be  clear,  —  the  apostle  con- 
sidered the  second  advent  of  the  Lord  worthy  of  the  great- 
est prominence  in  his  ministry ;  and  if  this  be  clear,  I  am 
free  to  confess  that  I  am  ignorant  how  any  one  can  venture 
to  neglect  this  important  subject.  It  does  appear  to  me  to 
be  great  presumption  to  omit  a  topic  so  scriptural,  and  still 
more  presumptuous  to  maintain  that  any  other  topic  is  bet- 
ter calculated  to  warn  the  sinner  to  walk  closely  with  his 
God.  When  I  reflect  that  there  are  special  blessings  prom- 
ised to  those  who  look  for  his  coming,  and  special  warnings 
to  those  who  say,  jSIij  Lord  ddayetli  his  coniinf/,  I  cannot 
but  feel  that  it  is  my  duty  prominently  to  set  forward  the 
doctrine  of  the  Second  Advent."' — Lectures  during  Lent,* 
1813,  pp.  19,  20. 

*  These  "  Lectures  during  Lent "  were  a  scries  of  twelve  discourses  deliv- 
ered during;  Lent,  1843,  at  St.  George's  Chapel,  Bloomsbury,  by  twelve  cler- 
gymen of  the  Church  of  England,  whose  names  are  hero  given,  beginning 
witli  Jlr.  ^lontague,  and  ending  with  Mr.  Stewart,  in  the  order  in  which 
they  lectured.  A  similar  series  of  lectures  has  been  continued  e.ach  year 
till  the  present  time.    (1855.) 

31 


362  one  hundred  witnesses. 

From  the  Rev.  Edward  Auriol,  M.A. 

(Rector  of  St.  Dunstan's  in  the  West,  Loudon.) 

"Our  church  teaches  us  to  pray  that  the  Lord  would 
'  shortly  accomplish  the  number  of  his  elect,  and  hasten  his 
kingdom.'  Will  not  a  believer,  to  whom  (after  he  lias  re- 
alized the  great  truths  on  which  his  own  salvation  rests)  the 
speedy  coming  of  his  Lord  has  become  the  chief  object  of 
earnest  expectation,  will  not  such  an  one  be  animated  with  a 
most  eager  desire  to  be  an  instrument,  in  the  Lord's  hand, 
for  the  fulfilment  of  those  events  which  are  yet  to  be  accom- 
plished ?  What  a  stirring  echo  to  the  longing  of  his  own 
heart  is  the  cry  of  the  '  whole  creation,'  through  sin  and 
the  miserable  prevalence  of  Heathenism,  '  groaning  and 
travailing  with  pain  together  until  now  ! '  What  a  motive 
for  fervor  and  zeal  in  the  missionary  cause  has  he  who  can 
look  at  every  soul  converted  to  God  as  a  fresh  earnest  of 
the  near  approach  of  the  '  day  of  redemption  '  !  When  he 
thinks  of  the  hopes  set  before  him  in  connection  with  the 
Bridegroom's  return,  how  will  he  long  that  many  should 
'  come  from  the  east,  and  from  the  west,  and  from  the 
north,  and  from  the  south,  to  sit  down  with  Abraham,  and 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  the  kingdom  of  God.'  " — //*.,  pp. 
'4,  35. 


o 


From  the  Rev.  Wm.  Pym,  M.A. 

(Vicar  of  AVillian,  Herts.) 

"  The  return  of  our  Lord  in  glory  !  What  heart  is  able 
to  conceive,  and,  therefore,  what  tongue  to  describe,  the  at- 
tendant circumstances  of  that  event?  It  is  enough  for  us 
to  know  that  that  event  is  sure ;  and  that  that  sure  event  is 
nigh  :  that  '  He  that  shall  come  will  come,  and  will  not  tar- 
ry : '  and  that  in  that  day  '  the  just  shall  live  by  faith.' 
Hence,  as  the  Lord  has  warned  the  church,  and  through 
the  church  the  world,  of  his  approach,  and  the  very  notes 
of  this  warning  are  even  sounding  in  our  ears,  it  becomes 
us  not  to  refuse  to  hear,  but  rather  to  hear  and  believe  that 
we  may  live.  Hence,  as  he  has  long  before  furnished  us 
with  a  course  of  predicted  events,  to  be  fulfilled  during  the 
last  times,  some  of  which  were  to  begin  to  be  accomplished 
shortly  after  they  had  been  revealed  (see  Rev.  1 :  1,  and 


TESTIMONY  OF  TUE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    8G3 

22  :  G),  and  we  can  now  look  back  upon  our  own  history 
and  see  that  the  accomplishment  of  by  far  the  greater  part 
has  actually  taken  place,  surely  it  is  our  iiighest  wisdom  not 
to  close  our  eyes  against  this  solemn  fact,  and  its  more  sol- 
emu  conse(|ucnce,  tJiat  upon  us  the  ends  of  the  world  are 
come,  and  that  this  generation  shall  icitncss  the  advent 
of  the  Lord  in  (jlory  to  introduce  the  millenary  reiyn  of 
ri'jJitcousness  and  peace.  We  do  not  expect  that  '  the 
world  '  sliall  receive  our  testimony,  for  the  Word  of  God 
predicts  that  that  day  shall  overtake  it  as  a  thief  We  do 
not  anticipate  that  the  nearness  of  the  Lords  approach  will 
become  a  favorite  suhject  of  divinity  in  the  churcli,  for  the 
Lord  intimates  that  this  will  not  be  the  case:  and  in  this 
there  will  be  a  parallel  between  the  state  of  the  professing 
church  as  touching  his  first  and  last  appearing.  '  I  have 
not  found  so  great  faith,  no,  not  in  Israel,'  he  remarked,  at 
his  first  advent.  The  visible  church  rejected  him  in  a 
body.  '  He  came  unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him 
not."  And  when  he  comes  next  unto  his  own,  will  he  find 
the  church  prepared  for  his  appearing  ?  '  "When  the  Son 
of  man  cometli,  shall  he  find  faith  on  the  earth?'  Of  this, 
I  conceive,  he  speaks  in  these  words,  and  the  inference  is 
clear  that  he  will  not  find  it.  There  shall  be  comparative- 
ly few  in  a  waiting  posture  to  receive  him.  Faith  in  that 
advent  is  the  scriptural  state  of  preparation,  a  living  prin- 
ciple of  fiiith  opposed  to  tliat  described  in  the  parable,  which 
leads  many  to  say,  '  My  Lord  dclayeth  his  coming ;  '  for 
where  this  is  found  it  teaches  them  that  have  it  to  '  look  for 
him ; '  and  '  unto  them  that  look  for  him  shall  he  appear  a 
second  time  without  sin  unto  salvation.'  " — //>.,  pp.  04,  65. 
'*  When  we  reflect  that  in  that  day  of  which  we  speak 
sorrow  and  sighing  shall  forever  flee  away,  they  who  know 
what  sorrow  and  sighing  mean  may  well  desire  it.  When 
we  are  assured  that  in  that  day  God  himself  shall  wipe 
away  tears  from  all  faces,  they  Avho  too  well  know  what  it 
is  to  shed  tears  of  bitterness  may  well  long  for  its  rising, 
as  then  they  shall  bid  an  eternal  farewell  to  all  the  troubles 
of  our  fiillen  humanit}'-,  and  exchange  them  for  joy  un- 
speakable and  fulness  of  glory." — lb.,  p.  06. 


364  ONE    HUXDRED    "WITNESSES. 


From  the  Rev.  0.  J.  Goodhart,  M.A. 

(Minister  of  St.  Mary's  Chapel,  Reading.) 

"  While  numberless  passages  all  state  clearly  the  pre- 
millennial  personal  advent  of  Jesus,  there  is  not  a  single 
passage,  Avhich  can  be  produced  from  the  Old  Testament, 
and  it  would  be  easy  to  sliow  that  this  remark  might  be  ex- 
tended to  the  New,  to  prove  that  there  is  any  advent  of 
Christ  after  the  Millennium."— 76.,  p.  80. 

"  The  time  is  flist  running  out;  and  soon  he  that  shall 
come,  will  come  and  will  not  tarry.  And  then.,  no  longer 
will  the  darkness  contend  with  the  light,  no  longer  will  the 
struggle  seem  to  be  doubtful,  or  the  throne  of  the  universe 
to  be  in  abeyance ;  no  longer  will  heavenly  truth  throw  out 
its  scattered  and  broken  beams  upon  our  sin-smitten  earth  ; 
but  out  of  the  midst  of  fearful  convulsion,  and  tremendous 
storm,  with  flame  of  devouring  fire,  shall  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  arise  in  mid-day  splendor,  w^ith  healing  under 
his  wings,  and  bless  our  creation  to  its  remotest  bound  with 
his  everlastiniz;  and  unclouded  light. 

"  And  now,  then,  you  see  what  will  come  of  all  the  pur- 
poses of  God.  You  see  the  first  man,  who  was  of  the  earth, 
earthy,  superseded  by  the  second  man,  who  is  the  Lord 
from  heaven :  you  see  the  world,  that  stood  simply  under 
the  law  of  creation,  brought  to  the  higher  standing  of  the 
law  of  redemption ;  and  you  see  the  glory  of  redemption 
made  more  glorious  still  by  the  glory  of  a  complete  salva- 
tion. And  how  is  all  this  to  be  ?  Not,  according  to  the 
common  notion,  by  the  destruction  of  the  heavens  and  of 
the  earth,  but  by  their  purification  and  renewal  in  right- 
eousness and  beauty.  Then  shall  the  morning  stars  again 
sing  together,  and  the  sons  of  God  shout  for  joy;  for 
when  he  bringeth  again  his  first-begotten  into  the  world,  he 
saith,  '  And  let  all  the  angels  of  God  worsliip  him.'  " 
—lb..,  p.  83. 

"This,  then,  is  the  end  of  my  hope!  Thou,  my  Lord 
and  my  God,  shalt  come  again  with  powder  and  great  glory ; 
Thou  shalt  take  unto  Thee  Thy  great  power  and  reign  ;  and 
Thou  shalt  change  my  vile  body,  that  it  may  be  like  unto 
Thy  glorious  body,  according  to  the  working  of  Thy 
mighty  yjo?6'e/- ;  and  I  shall  awake  up  after  Thy  likeness! 


TESTIMONY    OF    THE    CUURCII    OF   ENGLAND.  365 

It  is  enough,  Lord  !     Be  it  so  !     I  shall  be  satisfied  with 
it!  "— 77te  Priest  upon  his  Throne,  pp.  230,  231. 

From  the  Rev.  W.  Dalton,  M.A. 

(Incumbent  of  St.  Paul's,  AVolverhampton.) 

"  Everything  about  us  seems  defiled  and  out  of  joint; 
there  is  a  heaving  of  the  sea  of  discord,  ^Yhich  is  felt  to 
agitate  and  disquiet, —  a  sort  of  prelude  of  that  fearful 
storm  which  will  burst  on  the  church  just  previous  to  its 
eternal  calm.  We  have  now  to  meet  with  sorrows  and  be- 
reavements in  this  world  of  separation ;  we  have  now  to 
weep  and  lament  over  the  uprisings  of  the  evil  principle 
which  we  have  inherited  from  Adam,  and  which  struggles 
so  hard  against  the  heavenly  nature  implanted  by  Christ; 
all  this  we  have  now  to  meet,  and  therefore  we  have  need  of 
]>aticnce.  Your  Lord  would  have  you  learn  this  lesson 
daily,  whilst  yet  he  tarries  in  the  heavenly  sanctuary,  and 
has  not  sot  out  to  take  possession  of  his  millennial  kingdom. 
But,  then,  he  gives  you  the  sweet  assurance  that  the  delay 
is  short,  and  that  very  soon  we  shall  behold  him  in  his 
robes  of  majesty,  attended  by  myriads  of  holy  angels  and 
glorified  saints,  proclaiming,  with  a  voice  of  supremacy, 
that  shall  be  heard  to  the  utmost  bounds  of  creation, 
'  Behold,  I  make  all  things  new  ! '  "  —  Lectures  during 
Lent,  p.  106. 

FiiOM  THE  Rev.  J.  W.  Brooks,  M.A. 

(Rector  of  East  Retford,  England.) 

"The  signs  of  the  Second  Advent  in  the  state  of  tlie 
world  at  large  are  such  as  to  impress  my  own  mind  with  a 
deep  persuasion  that  we  are  on  the  eve  of  events  of  im- 
mense—  immense  importance  to  mankind." — lb.,  pp. 
100,  110. 

"  Though  I  distinguished  only  some  few  signs  as  in 
themselves  cheering,  yet,  when  considered  as  the  tokens  of 
our  Lord's  approach,  all  are  cheering  :  therefore  he  bids  us, 
as  in  the  text,  '  when  we  shall  see  these  things  only  begin 
to  come  to  pass,  to  lift  up  our  heads  because  our  re- 
demption draweth  nigh.'  And  if  the  beginnings  of  these 
things  are  calculated  to  inspire  us  with  hope  and  joy,  how 
31* 


366 


ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 


much  more  their  fulness !  Yes,  those  things  -which  are 
dark  and  appalling  to  the  world, —  like  the  pillar  and  the 
cloud, — will  be  as  light  and  brightness  to  the  saints;  who, 
when  all  is  roaring  and  raging  and  upheaving  round  about 
them,  shall  be  ardently  waiting  for,  but  most  surely  expect- 
ino;,  and  in  the  midst  of  it  obtainino;,  deliverance  from  cor- 


ruption, into  the  glorious 
of  God."— 76.,  p.  152. 


glorious  liberty  of  the  children 


From  the  Kev.  T.  E.  Birks,  M.A. 

(Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.) 

"  Truth,  in  its  details,  makes  a  far  greater  demand  on 
our  faith  than  when  presented  in  a  general  form.  The  res- 
urrection, as  an  abstract  theory,  may  have  a  deep  interest 
even  for  worldly  men.  Philosophers  may  love  to  speculate 
on  its  hidden  laws ;  while  others,  of  a  more  imaginative 
temper,  may  be  allured  by  its  beauty.  It  may  awaken  in 
them  a  sti'ange  sense  of  awe  and  mystery,  and  exercise 
over  them  the  fascination  of  some  Avild  and  fliiry  dream. 
But  the  doctrine  of  the  First  Resurrection  strips  away 
from  the  whole  subject  this  unreal  character.  It  is  no  longer 
a  lifeless  theory,  a  plaything  of  the  fancy ;  it  stands  out  in 
bold  relief  as  an  historical  fact,  linked  in  with  the  chain  of 
actual  events,  and  with  the  whole  course  of  Divine  provi- 
dence. It  now  becomes  a  solemn  reality  of  eternal  interest, 
which  strikes  on  the  unawakened  conscience  with  intolera- 
ble power.  And  thus  thousands,  who  repeat  continually 
those  words  of  the  creed,  almost  without  a  thought, —  '  I 
believe  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,' — would  start,  per- 
haps, at  the  bare  mention  of  the  First  Resurrection,  as  at 
some  apparition  from  the  dead." — lb.,  p.  155. 

"  '  They  lived  and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years.' 
Why  is  this  precise  period  thus  marked  off,  as  it  were,  from 
the  immeasurable  ages  of  eternity?  The  words  of  St. 
Peter  suggest  an  answer  :  '  A  thousand  years  with  the  Lord 
are  as  one  day.'  And  Avhat  mysterious  day  can  be  here  de- 
signed ?  The  key  is  given  us  in  the  very  opening  of  the 
Word  of  God.  There,  in  the  birth-week  of  creation,  the 
outlines  of  God's  providence  in  redemption  are  set  before 
us.     In  six  days  these  lower  heavens  and  earth  were  made, 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  EXGLAXD.    367 

and  on  the  seventh  God  rested  from  his  works.  So,  for  near 
six  thousand  years,  the  mystery  of  redemption  is  carried 
on,  till  at  length,  at  the  sounding  of  the  seventh  angel,  the 
mystery  of  God  shall  be  finished,  and  the  Millennial  Sab- 
bath shall  complete  and  hallow  the  new  creation  of  God."' 
—  lb.,  pp.  185,  186. 

"  The  scene  of  the  martyrs'  sufferings  shall  witness  their 
exaltation.  They  who  have  been  rejected  outcasts  in  a 
world  of  rebels  shall  be  crowned  with  honor  and  dominion 
over  a  world  redeemed  from  the  foil.  The  glorious  equity 
of  God  shall  thus  be  no  less  conspicuous  than  the  triumph 
of  his  grace ;  and  men  and  angels  shall  join  in  that  adoring 
song :  '  Great  and  marvellous  are  thy  works,  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty ;  just  and  true  are  thy  ways,  0  thou  King  of 
Saints!'"— 76.,  p.  187. 

From  the  Rev.  Alexander  Dallas,  M.A. 

(Rector  of  Wonstou,  Hants.) 

"  The  history  of  this  world's  life,  so  far  as  we  are  informed 
of  it,  is  just  as  a  week  —  7,000  years,  which  is  as  a 
mere  speck  in  its  whole  existence.  Before  Adam  was,  there 
was  an  eternity,  during  which  the  world  was  not ;  and  after 
the  period  to  which  we  are  brought  at  the  end  of  the  book 
of  the  Revelation  there  will  be  an  eternity,  during  which 
the  world  icill  be ;  for  God  has  distinctly  declared  that  he 
Las  made  the  world  to  be  inhabited." — 76.,  p.  235. 

"  In  order  to  restore  the  world  exactly  to  what  God  made 
it,  to  what  we  find  it  in  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis,  and 
to  make  it  what  it  shall  be  found  millions  of  years  hence. — 
inhabited  by  the  children  of  Adam,  good  men,  very  good, 
as  he  made  their  father,  and  granted  to  man  the  sovereignty 
over  his  works, —  it  pleased  him  to  pay  an  enormous  price ; 
he  gave  his  own  Son  to  save  the  world,  and  to  restore  all 
things  on  the  earth." —  76.,  p.  236. 

From  the  Rev.  W.  R.  Fremantle,  M.A. 

(Rector  of  Claydon,  Bucks.) 

"  As  then  the  gray  streak  of  the  dayspring  sheds  a  faint- 
er light  than  the  sun  when  risen  in  his  strength,  so  the 
grace  of  the  Gentile  morning  has  no  glory  in  this  respect 


368  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 


by  reason  of  the  glory  that  excelleth.  During  the  personal 
absence  of  the  sovereign  the  influence  of  the  crown  is  re- 
flected by  delegated  agency ;  but,  0  !  what  will  be  the 
splendor  of  the  day  when  the  King  appears,  wearing  his 
many  crowns,  and  attended  by  a  train  of  ten  thousand  times 
ten  thousand  of  his  saints,—  when  every  tongue  in  heaven 
shall  say,  '  Thou  art  the  King  of  glory,  0  Christ,'  and  when 
every  eye  in  Jerusalem  sliall  see  the  Lord  to  be  her  ever- 
lastmg  light,  and  her  God  her  glory  !  " — lb.,  p.  253. 

From  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hill,  B.D. 

(Prebendary  of  Litchfield,  and  Vicar  of  Cliesterfield.) 

"The  Scriptures  intimate  to  us  that  this  period  "of  pro- 
bation has  its  limit,  and  will  end  in  a  judgment  to  be  passed 
on  all,  both  angels  and  men,  by  that  man  whom  God  hath 
ordained :  and  that  this  judgment  is  immediately  prepara- 
tory to  the  establishment  of  a  mighty  kingdom,  of  Avhich 
there  shall  be  no  end." — lb.,  p.  284. 

"That  truth,  which  nature  and  reason  could  but  suggest 
or  approve,  stands  revealed  in  the  broad  page  of  inspiration, 
from  its  earliest  to  its  latest  records.  From  the  proclama- 
tion of  Enoch  to  the  antediluvian  rebels,  of  the  Lord's 
coming  wath  his  holy  myriads  '  to  execute  judgment  upon 
all,'  to  the  gracious  assurance  with  which  the  canon  of  Scrip- 
ture closes,  '  Behold  I  come  quickly,  and  my  reward  is 
with  'me,  to  give  every  man  according  as  his  uwric  shall 
ie,'  the  judgment  of  the  world  in  righteousness  has  been 
the  theme,  support,  and  joy,  of  the  faithful,  and  the  subject 
of  their  warnmg  to  the  world  in  which  they  lived."  — 
lb.,  p.  285. 

From  the  Rev.  Edward  Bickersteth. 

(Late  Rector  of  Watton,  Herts;   born  A.  D.  178C;   died  1850.) 

"This  day,  then,  is  at  hand.  The  judgment  of  the 
righteous is  now  very  near.  The  time  of  judg- 
ment may  come  before,  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature, 
the  younger  amongst  us  might  die.  Never  could  it  be  so 
emphatically  said  as  now,  Stablish  your  hearts,  for  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  draiceth  nigh.  Behold,  the  Judge 
standeth  before  the  door.     Live,  then,  in  the  constant  con- 


TESTIMONY  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  ENGLAND.    869 

templation  of  this  coming  judgment.  Act  in  the  constant 
view  of  its  solemn  decisions.  Dread,  above  all  dread,  being 
unprepared  to  meet  your  God.  Desire,  above  all  desire,  to 
be  ready  for  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  man." — //>.,  p.  345. 
"Then  shall  wg  realize  the  rapturous  song  -whicli  has  so 
often  below  raised  our  souls  to  God,  '  We  praise  thee,  0 
God,  we  acknowledge  thee  to  be  the  Lord.  All  the  earth 
doth  worship  thee,  the  Father  everlasting.  To  thee  all  an- 
gels cry  aloud.  The  heavens  and  all  the  powers  therein. 
To  thee  cberubim  and  seraphim  continually  do  cry.  Holy, 
holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth.  Heaven  and  earth  are 
full  of  the  majesty  of  thy  glory.'  This  scene  of  bliss  is 
before  us  ;  tliis  glory  is  at  hand.  Meditate  upon  it.  Live 
forit."— /<^.,  pp.  346,  347. 

From  the  Rev.  Jas.  Haldane  Stewart,  M.A. 

(Incumbent  of  St.  Bride's,  Liverpool.) 

"  If  there  be  any  one  topic  more  than  another  calculated 
to  solemnize  the  mind,  to  bring  us  as  lowly  suppliants  to 
the  Throne  of  Grace,  and  to  lead  to  watchfulness  and  prayer, 
while  at  the  same  time  it  cheers  and  animates  the  spirit, 
filling  it  with  that  blessed  hope,  which  led  the  apostles,  the 
army  of  martyrs,  and,  we  may  add,  our  Protestant  fore- 
fathers, to  '  count  all  things  but  loss  for  the  excellency  of 
the  knowledge  of  Christ  Jesus  their  Lord,' — if  there  be 
any  subject  calculated  to  produce  these  blessed  eifects,  it  is 
'  the  glorious  appearing  of  the  great  God  and  our  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ.'  "—lb.,  pp.  351,  352. 

"  0  !  that  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  his  infinite  mercy  and 
goodness,  would  deeply  impress  our  minds  with  this  important 
truth  ;  so  that,  instead  of  being  like  those  to  whom  the  Lord 
shall  come  unawares,  we  may  be  of  that  happy  number  who 
are  making  ready  for  His  appearing,  and  who,  when  He  docs 
come,  shall  be  able  to  say,  •  Lo  !  this  is  our  God  ;  we  have 
■waited  for  Him,  and  He  will  save  us :  this  is  the  Lord ;  we 
have  waited  for  Him,  we  will  be  glad  and  rejoice  in  His  sal- 
vation.'"—  lb.,  p.  355. 


370  one  hundred  witnesses. 

From  the  Rev.  E.  Hoare,  M.A. 

(Incumbent  of  Christ's  Church,  Ramsgate.) 

At  Christ's  advent,  "all  conditions  of  the  eternal  cove- 
nant will  be  fulfilled,  and  all  the  Avork  to  which  he  was 
anointed  amply  performed.  There  will  not  remain  one  of 
his  elect  ungathered,  nor  a  single  spot  on  the  garment  of 
any  one  of  them,  when  lie  presents  them  spotless  and  un- 
blamable before  the  throne.  Throughout  the  world  will 
there  be  found  no  rebel  thoughts,  for  the  '  new  heavens  and 
the  new  earth '  shall  be  filled  with  righteousness ;  there 
shall  be  no  injustice,  no  support  of  sin,  no  strife  and  back- 
bitings  ;  '  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against  nation, 
neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more.'  There  shall  be  no 
more  blood-stained  battle-fields,  nor  any  broken-hearted 
widows,  for  the  whole  world  shall  rest  under  the  holy  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Pi-ince  of  Peace." — The  Priest  iwon  his 
Throne*  pp.  141, 142. 

From  tee  Rev.  B.  Philpot,  M.A. 

(E.cctor  of  Great  Crcssingham.) 

"  Hope  is  a  prophetic  grace ;  and  as  faith  gets  more  gen- 
uine and  distinct,  hope  will  grow  more  active  and  sustain- 
ing. When  fliith's  backward  gaze  on  the  bright  obscure  of 
Calvary  is  clear  and  strong,  then  hope's  prospective  glance 
penetrates  into  heaven  itself,  with  animating  anticipations  of 
the  day  when  He  shall  '  rend  the  heavens  and  come 
down.'  "— /Z».,  p.  271. 

"Who  can  contemplate  without  a  thrill  of  joy  the  sud- 
den meeting  in  glory  of  all  God's  dear  family  !  Moses  and 
Abraham  and  David,  the  loving  John,  the  resolute  Peter, 
the  unwearied  Paul,  the  weeping  Mary,  and  Mary  the 
mother  of  Jesus ;  some  loved  parent,  it  may  be,  or  some 
dear  children  of  our  own,  whom  we  found  it  so  hard  to  part 
with  even  for  so  brief  a  season, — all  Avill  he  there  to  meet 
us,  and  to  part  no  more  forever !  Chiefest  of  all,  Imman- 
uel  himself  will  be  there ;  our  eyes  shall  behold  Him  and 
not  another;  our  hands  shall  handle  Him,  and  our  heads 

*•  This  volume  comprises  the  twelve  discourses  delivered  at  the  Blooms- 
bury  Chapel,  during  Leut,  A.  D.  1849. 


TESTIMONY   OF   THE    CHURCH   OF   ENGLAND.         371 

shall  rest  on  His  bosom ;  and  there  shall  be  '  heard,  as  it 
were,  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  as  the  voice  of  many 
waters,  and  as  the  voice  of  many  thunderiugs,  saying.  Al- 
leluia, for  the  Lord  God  omnipotent  reigneth.' 

"Nor  to  man  alone,  but  to  all  this  '  groaning  creation,' 
there  cometh  a  glorious  deliverance.  The  apostle,  using 
tlie  same  word  in  Heb.  2 :  3,  connects  this  salvation  with 
Christs  complete  victory  over  the  Prince  of  this  world,  and 
the  entire  '  subjection  of  the  world  to  come,'  including  the 
'  beasts  of  the  field,  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  fish  of  the 
sea,"  beneath  his  righteous  and  peaceful  dominion.  (Com- 
pare Heb.  2  :  3—8,  with  Psal.  viii.)'— /Z».,  pp.  283,  284. 

"Am  I  looking  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord?  Is  the  in- 
clination of  my  mind  to  welcome  Jesus?  Amid  the  conflicts 
of  the  wilderness  am  I  wearing  'for  an  helmet  the  hope 
of  salvation  "  ?  and  having  that  hope,  am  I  '  purifying  my- 
self even  as  He  is  pure  "  ?  If  these  questions  can  be  met 
with  confidence,  then  is  there  animating  proof  that  our 
hope  of  seeing  the  coming  Saviour  as  he  is,  and  reigning 
with  Him  on  earth,  is  a  sure  and  '  blessed  hope ; '  and  '  the 
day  of  the  Lord  will  not  overtake  us  as  a  thief  in  the  night; ' 
yea,  rather,  it  will  accomplish  our  '  perfect  consummation 
and  bliss,  both  in  body  and  soul,  in  his  eternal  and  everlast- 
ing glory.'  ''—lb.,  pp.  285,  286. 

"Even  now  there  is  a  sound  of  his  chariot- Avheels  upon 
the  mountains.  He  is  on  his  way  back  to  rescue  his  Aveary 
bride  from  the  conflict." — /6.,  p.  287. 

From  the  Rev.  Mourant  Brock,  M.A. 

(Chaplain  to  the  Bath  Penitentiary.) 

"  '  We,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for  a  new  heavens.' 
These  will  be  more  beautiful  than  the  present;  and  yet  how 
fail-  are  these  !  '  And  a  new  earth  ; '  this  also  will  t)e  more 
beautiful  than  the  present,  because  for  a  higlier  grade  of 
beings.  And  yet  how  fair  is  it !  And,  to  crown  all,  in  these 
'dwelleth  righteousness.'  Physical  and  moral  loveliness 
in  sweet  accord  will  here  meet,  and  the  result  Avill  be,  what 
eartli  since  the  fall  has  never  witnessed, —  Perfection.  Then 
shall  we  l)ehold  forms  and  converse  with  beings  of  surpassing 
beauty,  whom  it  shall  neither  harm  us  to  admire,  nor  them 


372  ONE    HUXDRED    WITNESSES. 

to  be  admired.  Then  shall  the  love  of  the  ci-eature  ever  be 
hi  continued  and  unresisting  submission  to  the  love  of  Jesus. 
Whilst  the  glory  that  shall  surround  Him,  and  His,  who 
shall  tell !  Only,  Lord,  may  we  soon  behold  it,  even  the 
King  in  his  beauty.'' 

'•  How  sweet  the  society  of  those  who  are  departed  !  How 
odorous  their  lives,  hoAv  pleasant  their  deaths,  how  sweet 
their  love,  how  cherished  their  memory  !  But,  how  sweeter 
far  their  society  under  the  happy  auspices  of  the  Heavenly 
Jerusalem,  and  in  the  presence  of  Jesus !  Here,  loved  as 
they  were,  still  they  were  imperfect ;  but  there,  perfect,  per- 
fected in  Him  who  is  the  Head.  And  here  the  certainty  of 
separation  cast  an  alloy  into  enjoyment ;  but  there,  united  to 
them,  we  are  united  forever.  Blessed  state,  which  in  bands 
indissoluble  shall  link  together  those,  who,  here  joined  in 
Jesus,  shall  there  from  his  presence,  and  from  each  other, 
never  again  be  sundered  !  " 

' '  The  believing  man,  whose  eyes  are  opened  to  the  future, 
sees  that  vain  is  any  expectation,  in  the  present  state,  of 
church  perfection  in  the  way  of  unity,  or  uniformity.  But 
to  such  an  one,  the  future  —  the  church  of  the  future  — 
when  every  member  will  be  holy  and  regenerate,  and  Christ 
in  person  shall  be  present  —  to  such  an  one  it  is  the  future 
to  which  he  turns  his  eye,  and  towards  which  he  directs  his 
expectations.  The  New  Jerusalem  will  reveal  a  perfect 
Church  of  Eangs  and  Priests :  perfect  in  unity  within,  for 
they  shall  have  one  heart  and  one  mind  —  and  perfect  in 
uniformity  without,  for  they  shall  have  one  present  and 
visible  Head.  Here  will  be  a  blessed  church  state  indeed." 
— /Z».,  pp.  316,  317,  318. 

"  It  is  at  the  resurrection,  called  'the  adoption,'  that  re- 
demption shall  be  fully  manifested  and  perfected.  The  body 
shall  be  redeemed  from  the  grave.  The  spirit  shall  be  fully 
emancipated  from  the  power  of  sin.  Man"s  habitation,  the 
earth,  shall  also  be  redeemed  from  all  iniquity,  whilst  the 
New  Jerusalem  descending  from  God  out  of  heaven  shall 
give  to  redemption  perfection  and  eternity.  Then,  and  not 
till  then,  shall  be  seen  the  fulness  and  perfection  of  the  Re- 
deemer's work.  Then  shall  the  top-stone  be  put  to  it.  Then 
shall  redemption,  the  result  and  fruit  of  thousands  of  years 
of  preparation,  shine  forth  in  all  its  perfection  and  glory, 


TESTIMONY    OF    ENGLISH    AND    SCOTCH    LAYMEN.     373 


the  crowning  Avork  of  the  Almighty,  the  admiration  of  men 
and  angelSj  through  eternitj." — 76.,  pp.  322,  323. 

From  the  Rev.  John  Hooper. 

(Rector  of  Albur_y,  Surrey.) 

*'  We  cannot  be  too  deeply  impressed  with  a  sense  of  the 
vraritcss  nnd  suddciniess  0?  the  Lords  appearing.  .  ,  Hence 
the  exhortation  of  our  Lord,  '  Watch,  therefore,  for  ye 
know  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour  wherein  the  Son  of  man 
Cometh.'  Let  us,  then,  remember  that  the  sixth  seal  has 
long  been  opened ;  that  tlie  sixth  trumpet  has  well-nigh 
ceased  to  sound  ;  the  sixth  vial  of  God's  wrath  nearly  elid- 
ed :  and  that  the  solemn  warning  under  the  outpouring  of 
that  vial  has  been  proclaimed  in  our  hearing  —  '  Jicliohl  I 
come  as  a  thief.  Blessed  is  lie  that  vatclicfh,  and  kccp- 
etli  his  garments,  lest  he  walk  naked  and  theij  see  his 
shame.'  Let  us  take  heed,  therefore,  that  these  words  of 
the  Lord  be  not  spoken  in  vain ;  for  we  know  not  how  soon 
the  seventh  seal  may  l>e  opened.  We  dare  not  count  on 
another  year  !  Yes.  l)efore  to-morrow,  the  last  truni])  may 
sound  ;  and  then  will  tiie  seventh  and  last  vial  of  God's 
wratli  1)0  poured  out !  We  have,  therefore,  the  strongest 
proof  that  can  be  given  of  the  nearness  of  these  events." 
—  Revelation  of  Jesus  Christ,  pp.  281,  282. 


TESTIMONY   OF  ENGLISH    AND   SCOTCH  LAYMEN. 


From  His  Grace,  George,  Duke  of  Manchester. 

"  If  we  are  led  to  expect  a  spiritual  Millennium  before 
the  second  advent  of  Messiah,  and  that  his  return  will  be 
only  to  judge  the  world  at  the  dissolution  of  all  things,  we 
must  give  up  our  expectation  of  a  grammatical  fulfilment 
of  the  prophecies  and  promises  ;  because  there  would  be 
neither  time  nor  place  for  the  literal  accomplishment  of  that 
promise,  towards  wliich  all  the  prophecies  converge,  and 
from  which  all  the  promises  of  the  ensuing  glories  radiate. 

Those  who    hold  that  the  church's  triumpli  will  bo 

during  Christ's  personal  presence  upon  this  earth  receive  the 
prophecies,  in  the  main,  according  to  the  plain  tenor  of  their 
language ;  whilst  their  opponents,  who  expect  the  fulfilment 
32 


37-4  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

of  the  prophecies  respecting  the  reign  of  Messiah,  all 
with  regard  to  the  restoration  of  Israel,  and  all  relating  to 
the  renovation  of  the  earth,  prior  to  the  literal  advent  of  the 
Lord,  must  adopt  a  method  of  interpretation,  which  they 
perhaps  call  spirituaUzing^  but  Avhich,  in  fact,  throws  am- 
biguity and  mystery  over  language  which  to  the  literalist 
appears  clear  and  explicit." —  The  Finished  Mystery,  pp. 
243,  2U. 

From  Wm.  Cuninghame,  Esq. 

(Of  Lainshare,  in  Ayr.) 

"  All  the  events  of  our  o^yn  times, —  the  growing  disor- 
ganization of  the  body  politic, —  the  fears  and  expectations 
of  men, —  the  deep  persuasion  of  an  impending  convulsion  in- 
rooted  in  every  thinking  mind,  similar  to  the  instincts  of 
animal  nature  befoi'e  the  approach  of  the  earthquake, —  the 
solemn  and  awakening  declarations  of  Scripture, —  the  clear 
and  unequivocal  voice  of  prophecy, —  every  sign,  every  prom- 
ise, every  testimony,  unite  in  announcing  his  approach."— 
Fulness  of  Times,  p.  166.    A.  D.  1834. 

"  If  we,  who  have  watched  every  sign  in  the  spiritual 
horizon  for  a  long  series  of  years,  were  now  asked,  '  Is  any 
sign  of  his  coming  yet  accomplished?'  we  should  be  con- 
strained to  answer,  '  To  our  view,  not  one  sign  remains  un- 
accomplished.' If  we  were  further  asked,  '  Shall  he  come 
this  year  ?  '  our  answer  would  be,  '  We  know  not ;  but 
this  much  we  know  and  believe,  that  he  is  at  hand^  even 
at  the  door.^  " — Visions,  p.  100. 

From  Hugh  Miller,  Esq. 

"  Faith,  undeceived  by  the  mirage  of  the  midway  desert, 
whatever  form  or  name,  political  or  religious,  the  phantasma- 
goria may  bear,  must  continue  to  look  beyond  its  unsolid 
tremulous  glitter  —  its  bare  rocks  exaggerated  into  air- 
drawn  castles,  and  its  stunted  bushes  magnified  into  goodly 
trees, —  and,  fixing  her  gaze  upon  the  reci'eation  yet  future, 
the  terminal  dynasty  yet  unbegun,  she  must  be  content  to 
enter  upon  her  final  rest — for  she  will  not  enter  upon  it  ear- 
lier —  at  return 


TESTIMONY    OF   ENGLISH    AND   SCOTCH    LAYMEN.     375 
■  of  Him,  the  woman's  seed, 


r 


Last  in  tlie  clouds  from  heaven  to  be  revealed 
In  the  glory  of  the  Father,  to  dissolve 
Satan  with  his  perverted  world,  then  raise 
From  the  conflagrant  mass,  purged  and  refined. 
New  heavens,  new  earth,  ages  of  endless  date. 
Founded  in  righteousness  and  peace  and  love. 
To  bring  forth  fruits,  joy,  and  eternal  bliss." — !Milton. 
Footprints,  p.  13G.   A.  D.  1850. 

From  Matthew  Habershon,  Esq. 

(Of  Bonner's  Ilall,  near  Hackney.) 

"  The  time  undoubtedly  is  now  near  at  hand  when  'the 
redemption  of  the  body  '  shall  be  experienced,  and  when  these 
bodies  of  our  humiliation  shall  be  fashioned  like  unto  his 
own  glorious  body.  Well  may  the  church,  then,  exult  in 
the  prospect  before  her,  of  her  complete  and  final  deliver- 
ance from  all  her  enemies ;  and  anticipate,  with  feelings  of 
the  highest  delight,  the  joyful  annunciation  '  Behold,  tho 
Bridegroom  cometli !  '  Her  days  of  mourning  and  sorrow 
will  then  be  at  an  end,  and  '  God  himself  will  wipe  away 
all  tears  from  their  eyes.'  Christ  will  take  unto  himself 
his  great  power,  '  and  reign  with  his  saints  on  the  earth; ' 
and  the  time  be  fully  arrived  when  the  great  Juliilee  of  a 
thousand  years,  so  beautifully  and  rapturously  described  by 
Isaiah,  and  in  the  last  chapters  of  the  Revelation,  will  com- 
mence. 

'  0  scenes  surpassing  fable,  and  yet  true  ! 
Scenes  of  accomplished  bliss  !  which  who  can  see. 
Though  but  in  distant  prospect,  and  not  feel 
His  soul  refrcsheil  with  foretaste  of  the  joy  ? 
***** 

One  song  employs  all  nations  ;  and  all  cry, 
"  Worthy  the  Lamb,  for  he  was  slain  for  us  !  " 
The  dwellers  in  the  vales  and  on  the  rocks 
Shout  to  each  other,  and  the  mountain  tops 
From  distant  mountains  catcli  the  flying  joy  ; 
Till,  nation  after  nation  taught  tlie  strain. 
Earth  rolls  the  rapturous  Ilosanna  round. 
Behold  tlie  measure  of  the  promise  filled  ! 
See  Salem  built,  the  labor  of  a  God  ! 
Bright  as  a  sun  the  saci-ed  city  shines  ; 
All  kingdoms  and  all  princes  of  the  earth 
Flock  to  that  light  ;  the  glory  of  all  lands 
Flows  into  her  ;  unbounded  is  her  joy. 
And  endless  her  increase.     *     *     * 
Pi'aise  is  in  all  her  gates  ;  upon  her  walls. 


37G  ONE    HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

And  in  her  streets,  and  in  her  spacious  courts. 
Is  heard  Salvation. 

From  every  clime  they  come 
To  see  thy  beauty  and  to  share  thy  joy, 
0  Sion  !  an  assembly  such  as  earth 

Saw  never,  such  as  heaven  stoops  down  to  see.'  "  —  Cowper. 
Guide  to  Chronological  Prophecy,  pp.  53,  54.    Pub.  in  1835. 

From  William  Thorp,  Esq. 

(Of  London.) 

"  The  great  Messiah,  the  Son  of  God,  will  appear  m  maj- 
esty and  glory,  to  subdue  every  hostile  power,  and  to  dis- 
place all  earthly  dominion,  preparatory  to  the  establishment 

of  his  millennial  kingdom Paradise  shall  be  restored, 

and  coextended    with  the  limits  of  the  globe The 

throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb  shall  be  there,  and  his  ser- 
vants shall  serve  him." — Destiny  of  the  British  Emjm'Sj 
p.  20.    A.  D.  1839. 

From  Charles  Sabine,  Esq. 

(Of  Owesty,  Shropshire.) 

"What  has  his  church  to  fear?  Why  should  she  stop 
her  ear,  when  she  is  told  that  the  Lord  is  at  hand  ?  Why 
should  the  bride  tremble  at  the  comino;  of  the  Bridegroom, 
or  try  to  believe  that  his  coming  is  all  a  fable,  all  a  delu- 
sion ?  Why  should  the  Lamb's  wife  turn  away  her  eye 
from  the  face  of  her  beloved  ?  0,  but  you  say,  '  She  does 
not;  she  looks  for  his  spiritual  coming.'  His  spiritual 
coming  !  What !  Is  Ichabod  written  on  her  door  ?  Has 
the  Lord's  Spirit  departed  from  her  ?  Has  he  left  her,  to 
whom  was  said,  '  Lo  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  to  the 
end  of  the  world  '  ?  Has  he  broken  his  word  ?  Has  he, 
indeed,  departed  in  spirit,  as  well  as  in  person,  that  she  is 
looking  for  him  thus  to  return  to  her  ?  His  spiritual  com- 
ing !  Who  can  have  taught  her  thus  to  tamper  with,  thus 
to  nullify,  her  hope  ?  Not  the  Lord  himself,  not  the  apostles, 
not  the  angels,  who  stood  by  to  comfort  the  widowed  and 
sorrowing  church,  who,  as  the  cloud  received  her  Lord  out  of 
her  sight,  thus  consoled  her :  '  Ye  men  of  Galilee,  why 
stand  ye  gazing  up  into  heaven  ?  This  same  Jesus,  who 
is  now  taken  up  from  you  into  heaven,  shall  so  come  in  like 


TESTIMONY   OF   ENGLISH   AND   SCOTCH   LAYMEN.     377 

manner  as  ye  have  seen  liim  go  into  heaven.'  Did  he  spir- 
itually go  ?  Then  spiritually  he  Avill  return.  Did  he  go 
personally  and  bodily?  Then  personally  and  bodily  will  he 
return.  Who  mocks  the  sorrow  and  taunts  the  hope  of  the 
loving  wife,  by  telling  her  that  her  absent  husband  will  re- 
turn to  her  spiritually?  And  where  is  the  loving  wife 
whom  such  mockery  would  persuade  to  quit  her  Avatch- 
tower,  or  her  accustomed  evening  walk,  that  she  niay  look 
out  for  and  welcome  the  return  of  the  beloved  of  her  heart? 
"But  I  hear  it  asked,  as  I  often  have,  '  Where  is  the  dif- 
ference, whether  we  go  to  him,  or  he  comes  to  us  ?  '  I  leply, 
simply  this :  that  the  departure  of  the  individual  believer's 
spirit  to  the  bosom  of  the  Lord  is  one  thing,  but  not  the 
thing  of  which  we  are  speaking,  The  coming  of  the  Lord 
is  another  thing.  I  know  well  that  the  individual  believer 
is  taught  to  concentrate  all  his  hopes  in  the  article  of  death, 
when  the  spiritascends  to  God  whogave  it,  and  when  he  is  told 
that  he  shall  receive  his  crown  of  glory.  But,  as  I  know 
that  St.  Paul  is  still  waiting  for  his, —  for  that  crown  which 
the  Lord,  the  righteous  Judge,  shall  give  him  at  that  day, 
the  day  of  his  appearing,  and  not  to  him  only,  but  to  all 
those  that  love  that  appearing, —  I  know  that  such  teaching  is 
not  only  unscriptural,  but  that  it  turns  the  eye  of  the  churchy 
and  of  each  individual  member  of  it,  from  the  one  great 
object  of  hope  —  the  coming  of  the  Lord  to  raise  his  sleep- 
ing saints,  and  to  change  his  living  ones,  clothing  them  all 
with  his  own  image  and  likeness.  It  puts  out  of  sight, 
far  out  of  sight,  the  resurrection  of  the  body ;  and  not  out 
of  sight  only,  but  out  of  the  reach  of  all  practical,  influential 
belief.  This  was  not  the  teaching  of  the  apostles,  who 
preached  Jesus  and  the  I'csurrcction.  not  Jesus  and  deaths 
as  the  hope  of  the  church.  Resurrection,  not  as  an  object 
to  be  contemplated  at  the  close,  but  at  the  commencement,  of 
the  millennial  kingdom.  It  was  the  resurrection  of  the 
body  which  inspired  them  with  hope,  and  which  made  them 
look  with  such  eager  desire  for  the  coming  of  the  Lord. 
'  If  by  any  means  I  might  attain  unto  the  resurrection  of 
the  dead  ! '  exclaims  one  who  well  knew  what  he  was  panting 
and  striving  after, —  a  body  fashioned  like  unto  the  glorious 
body  of  his  beloved  Lord.  No  wonder  the  early  Christians 
were  continually  exclaiming,  '  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come 
32* 


378  •      ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

quickly.^  And  wlien  the  last  of  the  holy  penmen  heard  the 
words  '  Surely  I  come  quickly,'  no  wonder  that  he  breathed 
out  his  soul  in  the  last  words  of  inspiration,  '  Amen,  even  so, 
come.  Lord  Jesus.'  And  no  wonder,  now  that  the  church 
has  been  taught  to  put  death  in  the  place  of  the  resurrec- 
tion, that  she  cares  not  how  long  the  Lord  may  tarry,  or  how 
slow  his  chariot-wheels  may  be  in  coming.  And  why  this 
difference,  this  contrast  between  the  hopes  and  expectations 
of  the  primitive  and  the  modern  church  ?  Your  '  Jubilee 
Hynm  '  explains  it  all.  The  world  must  be  converted  before 
the  Lord  can  come.  This  conversion  may,  and  probably 
will,  take  thousands  of  years  to  accomplish  ;  and  Avhen  ac- 
complished, it  is  to  enjoy  a  thousand  years  of  blessedness 
and  glory,  which  may  mean,  as  I  have  heard  from  the  pul- 
pit, a  thousand  years,  each  day  for  a  year,  or  365,000 
years ;  and  then  the  Lord  w'ill  come  to  destroy  it ;  and  then 
the  saints  shall  have  their  resurrection-bodies.  What  won- 
der, then,  that  the  church  has  fallen  in  love  with  the  king 
of  terrors,  and  taken  refuge  in  the  blessedness  of  the  dis- 
embodied spirit,  clothing  it  in  all  the  glory  of  the  disem- 
bodied state  ?  What  wonder  that  books  are  written  by 
learned  divines  to  prove  that  there  is  no  resurrection  of  the 
body*  but  that  all  the  change  takes  place  at  death  ?  What 
wonder  that  a  version  of  the  Bible  should  have  appeared 
with  20,000  emenclations-f  (?),  and  among  them  the  substi- 
tution of  the  ^future  state '  for  the  resurrection^  and  the 
introduction  of  that  state  for  the  resurrection's  synonym  ? 
But  wonder  it  is  that  such  things  do  not  startle  the  church 
from  its  dream.     Will  nothing  do  so  but  the  midnight  cry  ? 

0,  sir,  we  laymen  want  apostolic  preaching 

and  teaching  on  the  subject  of  dispensational  truth.  We 
know  what  it  is,  thank  God  !  We  have  the  Bible  in  our 
hands,  '  the  sure  word  of  prophecy,  a  light  shining  in  a 
dark  place  until  the  day  dawn,  and  the  day-star  arise.'  We 
are  commanded  to  try  the  spirits  whether  they  be  of  God, 
since  many  false  prophets  are  gone  out  into  the  world ;  and 
we,  unlearned  as  we  may  be,  can  and  do  try  them  by  the 
standard  of  truth  given  to  us  for  that  purpose.  We  com- 
pare scripture  Avith  scripture,  and  doctrine  with  doctrine.  We 
find  that  while  some  ministers  are  preaching  that  the  world 

*  Prof.  Bush's  Anastasis.  t  Issued  in  London  in  1845. 


TESTIMONY    OF   ENGLISH    AND    SCOTCH    LAYMEN,      379 

is  ripening  into  glory,  others  are  preaching  that  it  is  ripen- 
ing tor  judgment.  We  know  that  both  cannot  be  true.  We 
take  the  standard  of  truth  in  our  hands  at  home,  in  our 
closets,  and  we  find  that  one  class  is  teaching  a  Bible-truth, 
the  other  a  Popish  fable.  Ought  tliose  things  so  to  be  ? 
'  If  the  trumpet  give  an  uncertain  sound,  who  shall  prepare 
himself  for  the  battle  ?  '  If  one  puli)it  proclaims,  '  Peace 
and  safety !  the  Lord  dclaycth  his  comiiicj,'  and  another, 
'  Watch^  for  ye  know  neither  the  day  nor  the  hour  when 
the  Son  of  man  cometh,^  who  can  be  surprised  if  the  joyous 
"world  looks  on,  listens,  and  laughs  ?  And  listen  and  laugh 
it  does  —  such  a  laugh  of  merry  mockery!  And  Satan 
listens  and  laughs  too  —  0,  such  a  laugh  of  malicious  joy  ! 
And  the  harlot  laughs  as  she  hands  round  the  gilded  cup, 
and  sings,  for  very  wantonness,  'I  sit  a  (|ueen  forever  :  I 
shall  see  no  morrow.  The  Lord  delayeth  his  coming.  Thou 
hast  much  goods  laid  up  for  many  years.  Eat,  drink,  and 
be  merry.' 

"Well,  here,  you  say,  here  we  may  surely  sing  with  a 
joyful  heart.  True  :  but  it  must  not  be  a  strain  that  tells 
of  'the  world's  jubilee  '  in  the  absence  of  theworkVs  right- 
ful Lord  —  of  the  earth's  deliverance  from  bondage  while 
'  the  god  of  this  world '  is  triumphant  and  making  the 
whole  creation  groan.  It  must  not  be  of  a  time  anterior  to 
that  when  the  cry  shall  be  heard,  '  The  kingdoms  of  this 
Avorld  are  become  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord,  and  of  his 
Christ,  and  shall  reign  for  ever  and  ever.'  Tell  me  not  that 
it  is  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  that  will  do  all  this.  It  is 
only  the  province  of  the  Gospel  to  announce  it.  '  The 
Gospel  of  the  kingdom '  is  one  thing,  '  the  kingdom  '  itself 
is  another  thing.  The  invitation  is  not  the  feast.  We  have 
come  to  talk  about  the  Gospel  as  though  there  were  something 
cabalistic  in  the  7rord.  We  have  come  to  regard  it  very 
much  as  the  Jew  regards  the  law,  or  the  Papist  the  crucifix. 
It  is  a  message  —  it  is  an  announcement ;  it  is  not  that  of 
which  it  testifies  —  it  is  not  the  kingdom  of  Christ ;  it  has 
done,  and  is  doing,  and  will  yet  do,  its  appointed  work, — 
gather  out  the  little  flock  to  whom  it  is  the  Father's  good 
pleasure  to  give  the  kingdom.  But  it  will  do  no  more.  It 
will  not  heal  the  sick,  for  it  is  not  its  province.  It  will  not 
give  sight  to  the  blind,  nor  hearing  to  the  deaf,  nor  feet  to 


380  ONE    HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

the  lame,  for  it  is  not  its  province.  It  will  not  raise  the 
dead,  for  it  is  not  its  province.  It  will  not  cause  waters  to 
spring  forth  in  the  desert,  nor  make  the  wilderness  flourish 
and  blossom  as  the  rose.  It  will  not  dethrone  the  god  of  this 
world,  for  it  is  not  its  province.  It  will  not  close  the  door 
of  the  world's  great  hospital  — 

'  The  lazar-house,  sad,  noisome,  dark,  -wlierein  are  laid 
Numbers  of  all  diseased,  all  maladies 
Of  ghostly  spasm,  or  racking  torture,  qualms 
Of  heart-sick  agony,  all  feverous  kinds. 
Convulsions,  ejjilepsies,  fierce  catarrhs, 
Intestine  stone  and  ulcer,  colic  pangs, 
Demoniac  frenzy,  moping  melancholy, 
And  moon-struck  madness,  pining  atrophy, 
Marasmus,  and  wide-wasting  pestilence. 
Dropsies  and  asthmas,  and  joint-racking  rheums.' 

"  But  all  this  is  to  be  done  :  and  when  the  number  of  the 
elect  is  complete,  —  that  number  known  only  to  Him  who 
keeps  the  book,  'the  Lamb's  book  of  life,'  in  which  their 
names  are  written ;  when  the  last  of  the  little  flock  shall 
have  heard  the  shepherd's  voice  through  the  instrumentality 
of  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  —  then  the  trumpet  shall 
sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be  raised  incorruptible,  and  we 
(the  living)  shall  be  changed  in  a  moment,  in  the  twinkling 
of  an  eye.  And  then  the  kingdom  shall  come,  and  God's 
will  be  done  on  earth,  as  it  is  done  in  heaven,  and  the  groans 
of  creation  shall  cease.  Let  the  angel  speed,  then,  his  flight, 
through  the  midst  of  heaven,  having  the  everlasting  Gospel 
to  preach  unto  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth,  and  to  every  na- 
tion, and  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  peojDle,  and  say  with  a  loud 
voice,  '  Fear  God,  and  give  glory  to  him,  for  the  liour  of 
his  judgment  is  come.'  For  then  shall  come  the  restitu- 
tion of  all  things  promised  before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
For  concomitant  with  and  consequent  upon  the  second  coming 
of  Christ  shall  be :  The  resurrection  of  the  sleeping  saints, 
the  change  of  the  living  saints,  the  casting  out  and  binding 
of  Satan,  the  destruction  of  Antichrist,  the  gathering  of 
Israel,  the  descent  of  the  new  Jerusalem,  the  eradication  of 
the  curse  from  the  earth,  the  deliverance  of  the  creature 
from  the  bondage  of  corruption,  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and 
his  saints,  the  whole  earth  filled  with  his  glory ;  and  then 
shall  the  Redeemer  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul  and  be 
satisfied.     And  we  shall  be  satisfied,  too,  '  if  by  any  means 


TESTIMONY   OF   A    CONVERTED   JEW.  381 


we  may  attain  unto  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,'  awake  in 
his  likeness,  and  share  in  his  glory." — Letter  to  the  Rev. 
Dr.  RoJJlcs,  author  of  the  ''Jubilee  Hynm.''   A.D.  1846. 


From  His  Serene  Highness,  Charles,  Landgrave  of 

Hesse. 

(The  father-in-law  of  the  King  of  Denmark.  From  a  speech  delivered  in  the 
palace  of  Gotturf,  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Sleswich  and  Holstein  Diblo 
Society,  A.  D.  1829.) 

"  Is  not  his  second  coming,  spoken  of  by  our  Lord  to  his 
disciples,  now  near,  since  the  appointed  sign  l)y  him  has 
appeared?  His  disciples  asked  (Matt.  24 :  3),  '  What  will 
be  the  sign  of  thy  coming,  and  of  the  end  of  the  world  ? ' 
And  Jesus  answered  and  said  unto  them  (v.  14),  'And  this 
Gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in  all  the  world  for 
a  witness  unto  all  nations,  and  then  shall  the  end  come.' 
The  disciples  considered  the  coming  of  our  Lord  as  the  end 
of  this  world  and  the  commencement  of  a  new.  ...  In 
Rev.  20  :  4,  an  account  is  also  given  of  these  thrones,  and 
of  the  first  resurrection  of  those  who  had  lost  their  lives  for 
the  witness  of  Christ ;  and  these,  adds  St.  John,  '  lived  and 
reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years.' " — Edinhuryh 
Christ.  List.    June,  1830. 


From  the  Rev.  Ridley  H.  Herschell. 

(A  Hebrew,  and  Pastor  of  a  Church  of  Converted  Jews  in  the  city  of  London.) 

"  Those  who  look  for  the  '  restitution  of  all  things'  (Acts 
3  :  21)  at  the  second  coming  of  the  Messiah,  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  who  look  for  no  permanent  amelioration  of  the 
state  of  the  Avorld  till  then,  are  sometimes  upl)raided  as 
taking  gloomy  and  hopeless  vie\YS  of  the  present  condition 
of  things,  and  of  the  effects  of  efibrts  for  the  spread  of  the 
Gospel.  Now,  I  can  honestly  declare,  that  if  I  looked  to 
human  efforts  to  bring  about  the  millennium,  I  should  be  in 
utter  despair  about  it.  Wlien  I  contemplate  the  small 
progress  that  even  the  outward  knowledge  of  Christianity 
has  made,  and  the  nuich  smaller  progress  of  Christianity  in 
its  vital  power :  when  I  see  the  powers  of  the  world  crushing 
the  Gospel,  and  the  monster  Popery  desolating  the  fairest 
and  most  successful  of  modern  missions ;   when  I  see  the 


382  ONE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

spirit  of  liberty  so  often  in  base  alliance  with  irreligion  and 
infidelity ;  when  I  find  some  of  the  noblest  minds  of  the  day, 
those  who  give  the  tone  to  the  opinions  of  men  of  thought 
and  talent,  doting  about  the  excellence  and  perfection  of 
human  nature ;  when  I  behold  the  world,  which  is  opposed 
to  God,  so  active  and  so  able,  and  the  church,  on  the  con- 
trary, so  divided  and  so  feeble,  I  see  not  a  single  ray  of  hope 
that  the  conversion  of  the  world,  as  it  is  called,  will  ere  long 
be  ejQfected  by  missionary  operations.  Blessed,  indeed,  are 
these  operations ;  they  save  individual  souls ;  they  call  out 
the  members  of  that  glorious  company  who  form  the  '  Bride, 
the  Lamb's  wife ; '  but,  if  I  trusted  to  them  for  the  covering 
the  whole  earth  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord,  I  should 
regard  the  'glory  of  the  latter  days'  as  at  an  almost  hope- 
less distance.  I  look  for  no  gradual  amelioration  of  the 
world's  condition  ;  the  Scripture  tells  us  to  look  for  'wars, 
and  rumors  of  wars ;'  for  '  famines,  and  pestilences,  and 
earthquakes  in  divers  places ; '  for  '  men's  hearts  failing  them 
for  fear,  and  for  looking  after  those  things  that  are  coming; 
upon  the  earth ; '  and  THEN,  at  that  time,  not  when  the 
world  is  all  converted,  we  shall  '  see  the  Son  of  man  coming 
in  a  cloud  with  power  and  great  glory '  (Luke  21 :  26,  27 ; 
Matt.  24 :  7),  to  take  unto  Himself  His  great  power  and 
reign.  And,  therefore,  when  we  '  see  these  things  begin  to 
come  to  pass,'  Ave  '  look  up,  and  lift  up  our  heads,'  knowing 
that  our  'redemption  draweth  nigh'  (Luke  21:  28),  that 
our  Messiah  will  return  to  complete  His  work ;  that,  having 
at  His  first  coming  made  'reconciliation  for  iniquity.'  He 
will  at  His  second  coming  '  bring  in  everlasting  righteous- 
ness' (Dan.  9:  24),  which  shall  'cover  the  earth  as  the 
waters  cover  the  sea.'  0  glorious  period  !  Who  could 
believe  it  near  at  hand,  and  be  unduly  occupied  with  the 
concerns  of  this  present  evil  age?  Who  can  regard  the 
varied  misei'y  of  the  groaning  earth,  without  '  looking  for, 
and  hastening  unto,  the  coming  of  the  day  of  God  '  (2  Peter 
3  :  12),  without  fervently  praying,  '  Come  quickly,  Lord 
Jesus'?" — Mystery  of  the  Gentile  Dispensation,  pp. 
120—123. 

"  It  is  a  strange  notion  of  the  omnipotence  of  God  to  sup- 
pose that  He  made  a  world  Avhich  He  considered  '  very 
good,'  and  that  Satan  so  marred  it  that  God  needed  to  * 


TESTIMONY    OF    A    CONVERTED    JEW.  383 

destroy  it,  and  blot  it  out  of  His  creation  !  Is  this  consist- 
ent either  with  the  wisdom  or  the  power  of  God?  If  He 
has  seen  fit  to  provide  a  remedy  for  the  evil  caused  by  Satan 
to  one  portion  of  His  very  good  work  —  the  spirit  of  man  — 
Avh}'^  should  it  be  thought  a  strange  thing,  that  the  remedy 
sliould  also  extend  to  the  material  portion  of  the  work, 
which  was.  equally  with  the  other,  pronounced  '  very  good;' 
a  thing  right,  proper,  and  suitable  to  exist?  Shall  we  dare 
to  say  that  Satan  has  in  this  point  foiled  God,  and  has  made 
that  which  God  pronounced  good  so  irreparably  evil,  that  it 
must  needs  be  destroyed,  and  exist  no  longer  ? 

'•  It  is  sometimes  maintained  that  the  popular  notion  of 
God  utterly  destroying  the  earth,  and  taking  the  righteous 
to  dwell  elsewhere,  in  a  place  called  heaven,  is,  even  if  an 
error,  a  very  harmless  one ;  l)ccause  it  does  not  signify  Avhere 
Ave  are  to  lie  hereafter,  so  that  we  dwell  in  the  immediate 
presence  of  God,  where  alone  is  happiness.  There  can  be 
no  question  as  to  the  preeminent  importance  of  ascertaining 
the  way  in  which  futui-e  happiness  is  to  be  attained ;  but, 
when  this  all-important  question  is  settled,  we  are  not  desired 
indolently  to  fold  our  hands,  and  to  say.  This  suffices  me,  I 
will  keep  solely  to  these  first  principles  of  the  doctrine  of 
Christ.  On  the  contrary,  we  are  told  to  '  go  on  unto  per- 
fection' (Ileb.  G:  1),  and  to  'add  to  our  faith  knowledge.' 
In  proportion  as  our  views  are  scriptural,  they  will  be  influ- 
ential :  in  proportion  as  they  are  distinct  and  well-defined, 
in  the  same  proportion  will  the  impression  they  make  be 
vivid  and  abiding.  It  is  treason  against  the  God  of  truth 
to  say  that  error  may  answer  our  purpose  as  well  as  truth. 

"  But  the  banishment  of  matter  out  of  God's  creation,  as 
an  essentially  sinful  thing,  has  not  been  harmless.  It  has 
rendered  the  glorious  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body 
a  mere  inert  dogma;  held,  indeed,  theoretically,  but  practi- 
cally a  dead  letter,  exercising  no  influence  over  tiie  affec- 
tions and  hopes  of  the  Christian.  The  happiness  of  the  dis- 
embodied spirit  is  all  that  is  contemplated ;  and  whether  that 
spirit  is  again  to  rejoin  the  body  or  not,  is  a  matter  of  com- 
parative, if  not  absolute  indifference,  to  a  very  large  portion 
of  the  church  of  Christ.  In  the  days  of  the  apostles  it  was 
not  so ;  the  happiness  of  the  disembodied  spirit  is  but  slightly 
alluded  to  as  being  preferable  to  the  toilsome  warfare  of  the 


884  ONE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

Christian  life ;  but  the  '  blessed  hope '  that  animated  the 
hearts  of  the  early  believers  was  '  the  glorious  appearing 
of  the  great  God,  even  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  Avho  shall 
change  our  vile  body,  that  it  may  be  fashioned  like  unto 
His  glorious  body.'  (Titus  2:  13;  Phillip.  3:  21.)  The 
apostles  preached  '  Jesus  and  the  resurrection ; '  the  moderns 
seem  to  think  the  second  of  these  topics  superfluous." — 
lb.,  p.  171—174. 


TESTIMONY  OF  AMERICAET  EPISCOPAL  DIVINES. 

From  the  Rt.  Rev.  C.  P.  McIlvaine. 

(Bishop  of  Ohio.) 

''What  do  Ave  look  for?  Heaven,  and  rest,  and  glory, 
indeed,  but  all  as  connected  and  consummated  by  the  ap- 
pearing of  Jesus  Christ.  '  When  Christ,  who  is  our  life, 
SHALL  appear,  then  shall  we  also  appear  with  Him  in 
glory,' — '  We  look  for  the  Lord  Jesus,  who  shall  change 
these  vile  bodies,'  &c.  The  virgins  have  gone  forth  to  meet 
the  Bridegroom.  The  most  imposing  aspect  of  the  world  at 
the  present  time  gives  a  most  solemn  aspect  to  the  prophe- 
cies of  Daniel  and  Revelation  concerning  the  time  of  the 
end." — Wmthrop's  Letters,  p.  5.    A.  D.  1849. 

From  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  H.  Hopkins. 

(Bishop  of  Vermont.) 

"  Within  the  last  ten  or  twelve  years  of  my  ministry,  my 
opinions  have  .  .  .  undergone  a  thorough  revolution.  And 
I  cannot  but  think  that  any  man  whose  mind  is  ready  to 
submit,  with  the  humility  of  a  child-like  faith,  to  the  only 
infallible  teacher  —  the  Word  of  God  —  must  yield,  even  at 
the  sacrifice  of  his  previous  prejudices,  to  the  vast  amount 
of  testimony  which  the  Scriptures  furnish  to  that  important 
doctrine,  the  personal  advent,  and  re'tgn  upon  the  regen- 
erated earth,  of  the  glorious  Redeemer." — lb.,  p.  6.  A.  D. 
1849. 

From  the  Rt.  Rev.  John  P.  Henshaw,  D.D. 

(Late  Bishop  of  Rhode  Island.) 

'Although  we  have  formerly  advocated  the  popular  the- 
ory ourselves,  ...  the  common  belief  that  there  will  be  a 


TESTIMONY    OF   AMERICAN    EPISCOPAL   DIVINES.      385 

conversion  of  all  nations  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  and  a  state 
of  universal  peace  and  holiness  throughout  the  world  for  the 
space  of  a  thousand  years  before  the  second  advent  of  our 
Lord,  is,  to  our  view,  utterhj  irreconcilable  with  what  the 
Scriptures  teach." — Episcopal  Recorder^  A.  D.  1845. 

Which  "  view  includes  no  manifestation  of  Christ  in  His 
human  nature,  no  establishment  of  a  dominion  upon  earth, 
...  no  resurrection  of  departed  saints,  no  transformation 
of  living  ones,  no  binding  of  Satan  for  one  thousand  years, 
no  creation  of  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  wherein 
dwelleth  righteousness." — Ibid. 

"Ai-e  we  among  the  penitent,  believing,  and  holy  ones, 
who  are  '  looking  for  and  hasting  unto  the  coming  of  the 
day  of  God : '  or  are  we  among  the  impenitent  and  unholy, 
who  will  '  wail  because  of  Ilim '  ?" — Ibid. 

From  Rev.  Stephen  H.  Tyng,  D.D. 

(Of  New  York  City.) 

Jesus  "  will  reign  in  visible  glory  among  His  saints  upon 
the  earth,  when  He  shall  return,  according  to  His  promise 
to  them,  without  sin  unto  salvation.  He  has  now,  as 
regards  His  visible  presence,  gone  to  receive  for  Himself  a 
kingdom,  and  to  return.  "When  the  appointed  hour  arrives, 
the  Son  of  man  shall  appear  in  His  glory,  and  all  his  holy 
angels  with  Him.  ...  To  this  blessed  kingdom  of  the  Son 
of  God  multiplied  prophecies  of  the  Scripture  bid  us  look 
forward  continually;  and  it  is  our  blessed  privilege  to  live 
in  nuccasinff  expectation  of  the  happy  day,  when  angel 
voices  shall  thus  announce  unto  His  waiting  Zion:  'Thy 
God  reigneth.'  " — Lectures  oti  the  Laio,  &c.,  pp.  371,  372. 
A.  D.  1849. 

"  In  the  great  view  of  the  Saviour's  personal  reign,  on  a 
regenerated  earth,  as  the  final  and  everlasting  abode  of  His 
redeemed,  I  rest  with  confidence  and  delight." — HilVs 
'■^Saints'  Inheritance^'^  p.  271. 

From  Rev.  Edward   Winthrop,  M.A. 

(Rector  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  Xomalk,  Ohio.) 

"The  second  coming  of  our  Lord  in  power  and  great 
glory,  in  the  sense  of  a  visible  and  personal   advent,  has 
83 


386  ONE    HUNDRED    -WITNESSES. 

always  been  a  cardinal  doctrine  in  the  faith  of  the  church, 
and  is  inserted  as  such  both  in  the  Apostles'  and  in  the 
Nicene  creed.  .  .  .  This  was,  from  the  earliest  times, 
the  hope  of  the  church." — Winlhrojis  Letters,  p.  31. 
A.  D.  1849. 

"This  personal  and  visible  advent  of  the  Saviour  is  at 
the  resurrection  of  the  saints ;  but  the  resurrection  of  the 
saints  is  anterior  to  the  Millennium,  and  therefore  the  ad- 
vent also  is  anterior  to  the  Millennium." — Ibid.,  p.  75. 

"The  Millennium,  or  period  denoted  by  the  'thousand 
years,'  is  but  the  first  epoch  of  His  reign  on  the  new  earth ; 
for  it  is  written,  '  of  His  kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end.'  " — 
Ibid.,  p.  96. 

"As  we  are  rapidly  approaching  the  grand  crisis  of  this 
world's  history,  it  becomes  us,  in  a  devout  and  prayerful 
spirit,  carefully  to  note  the  signs  of  the  times." — lb.,  p.  142. 


Testimony   of  William   Miller. 

(Baptist.  —  Born  A.  D.  1782;   died  1849.) 

"Much  testimony  might  be  produced  to  show  we  are  on 
the  end  of  the  world.  Yet  the  Scripture  is  fulfilling  to  the 
very  letter  by  those  scoffers  of  the  present  day,  who  say, 
'  Where  is  the  promise  of  His  coming  ?  '  and,  also,  who  '  say 
in  their  liearts.  My  Lord  delayeth  His  coming.'  And  some 
of  them  are  so  awfully  daring  as  to  publish  openly  and 
boldly  to  the  world  that  He  will  not  come  this  '  million  of 
years  yet.'  Strange  infatuation !  It  is  time  for  all  who 
sincerely  love  our  Lord  to  awake  from  their  slumbers,  trim 
their  lamps,  and  be  ready ;  for  the  Bridegroom  is  at  the 
door.  Why  will  you  be  so  backward  in  believing  God's 
Word  ?     Can  you  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ? 

"  I  beseech  you,  0  sinner  !  do  not  hear  to  those  who  will 
deceive  you.  Look  for  yourselves ;  read,  study,  and  con- 
sider for  yourselves.  You  may  depend  upon  it,  every  im- 
portant movement  of  the  nations,  of  the  church,  of  sects 
and  societies,  of  the  world,  denotes  the  end  of  all  things  at 
hand.  A  few  more  days  to  1)0  numbered,  and  time  will  be 
no  more.  Regard  not  those  teachers  who  are  crying  peace 
and  safety,  when  sudden  destruction  cometh ;  that  say,  '  My 
Lord  delayeth  his  coming.'     Be  warned  by  one  who  feels 


TESTIMONY    OF   PRESBYTERIANS,  ETC.  387 

for  your  souls!  I  ask  not  for  your  honors,  nor  for  your 
money  ;  let  them  perish  with  the  world.  I  ask  you  to 
escape  for  your  life,  your  eternal  life.  0  save,  save  your 
soul !  Think  of  that  world  which  will  never  end,  of  that 
state  which  will  never  be  changed.  Think,  my  dear  friend, 
of  your  own  good :  buy  the  truth,  buy  oil,  buy  wine  and 
milk,  without  money  and  without  price.  Come,  ye  poor, 
take  hold  of  the  riches  which  can  never  perish  ;  eat,  0  !  cat 
and  drink  of  that  food  which  can  never  cloy. —  which,  if  a 
man  eat  of,  he  shall  live  forever.  Come,  ye  sick,  here  is 
health  for  you ;  yc  lame,  you  will  find  strength ;  yes,  weary 
ones  may  find  rest,  and  captives  go  free.  The  bars  of  the 
prison-iiouse  will  be  broken,  and  the  shackles  of  the  slaves 
will  be  unloosed.  Captain  Jesus  is  knocking  at  the  door ; 
King  Immanuel  will  soon  come  in." — Memoirs,  pp.  404-5. 


TESTIMONY    OF    MINISTERS    AND   LAY   MEMBERS    OF 

american  presbyterian  and  congregational 
churches. 

From  the  Rev.  George  Duffield,  D.D. 

(Piistor  of  the  First  Presbj'tcrian  Church  of  Detroit,  Jlich.) 

"  Especially  must  he  [who  opposes  this  doctrine]  meet 
the  (|uestion  fairly  and  fully  whether  the  kingdom  of  God, 
the  kingdom  of  heaven,  as  spoken  of  by  Christ  and  his 
apostles,  is  not  regarded  by  them  as  future  —  not  some- 
thing in  another  globe  or  in  heaven,  but  here,  on  this  earth, 
to  be  developed  in  a  new  and  glorious  dispensation,  to  be 
introduced  by  Jesus  Christ  at  his  personal  visible  coming. 
These  are  grave  and  solemn  themes.  Minds  of  the  highest 
order,  Christians  of  the  most  ardent  and  devoted  piety,  and 
scholars  of  the  profoundest  erudition,  have  embraced  the 
Millonarian  faith  as  the  true  and  genuine  import  of  Gods 
promises  and  the  scheme  of  prophecy."  —  Millenariatiism 
Defended,  pp.  182,  183.     A.  D.  1843. 

From  the  Rev.  Charles  K.  Imbrie. 

(Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Rahway,  N.  J.) 

"  It  is  a  clear  doctrine  of  the  word  of  God,  that  the  church 
is  to  look,  and  long,  and  wait  for  the  real,  visible  second 
coming  of  the  Lord  ;  and  that  we  are  to  take  heed,  watch 


388  OXE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

and  pray;  for  we  know  not  when  the  time  is."  —  The 
Kingdom  of  God,  p.  40.     A.  D.  1850. 

"If  it  be  true  that  the  apostles  in  all  their  epistles  repre- 
sent this  coming  of  Christ  as  the  only  really  glorious  object 
between  them  and  the  final  redemption,  surely  we  ought  to 
stand  in  the  same  position.  Our  views  of  the  Millennium 
ought  to  clash  with  no  such  duty."  — 76.,  p.  47. 

•'Tell  me,  I  beseech  j^ou,  how  I  may  expect  any  such 
kingdom  before  the  advent  of  our  Lord,  and  yet  look  and 
wish  for  that  advent  continually  ?  If  that  kingdom  is  not 
to  appear  until  his  advent,  tell  me,  further,  how  is  it  that 
the  Scriptures  so  continually  associate  that  kingdom  with 
this  earth,  if  it  is  to  be  withdrawn  to  some  other  point  in 
the  universe."  — Ih.,  p.  87. 

From  the  Rev.  Alfred  Bryant. 

(Pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  in  Nilcs,  Mich.) 

"  Isaiah  and  Peter  speak  of  the  same  new  lieavens  and 
new  earth  :  for  the  apostle  says  that  his  are  the  fulfilment 
of  those  predicted  by  the  prophet.  '  We,  according  to  his 
promise,'  that  is,  this  promise  of  Isaiah,  '  look  for  a  new 
heavens  and  a  new  earth,  in  which  dwelleth  righteousness.' 

"  But  Peter  declares  that  his  are  after  the  coming  of  the 
Lord,  and  the  dissolving  of  the  elements,  and  the  burning 
of  the  earth ;  and  Isaiah  teaches  that  his  are  before  or  at  the 
commencement  of  a  state  of  things  which  can  only  take 
place  during  the  restoration  of  Israel  and  a  converted  world : 
therefore,  from  a  comparison  of  these  Scriptures,  it  is  clear 
that  the  coming  of  the  Lord  must  be  before  the  conversion 
of  the  world  or  Millennium.  For,  as  Peter  places  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth  after  the  coming  of  the  Lord, 
and  Isaiah  places  them  before  a  converted  Avorld,  is  it  not 
certain  that  the  coming  of  Christ  must  be  pre-millennial  ?  " 
—  Vieivs  on  Mlllenariainsm,  p.  90.     A.  D.  1852. 

From  the  Rev.  Nathan  Lord,  D.D. 

(Pres.  of  Dartmouth  College,  N.  H.) 

"There  is  nothing  in  the  disordered  nature  and  constitu- 
tion of  man ;  nothing  in  the  organizations  of  social  life, 
which  are  but  the  aggregation  and  embodiment  of  depraved 
individuals :  nothino;  in  the  law  of  life  and  continuance  im- 


TESTIMONY   OF   PRESBYTERIANS,  ETC.  389 

pressed  by  the  Creator  equally  upon  individuals  and  collect- 
ive bodies ;  nothing  in  the  prophecies  of  Scripture  which 
have  been  fulfilled  in  the  past  history  of  the  nations; 
nothing  in  the  present  state  of  the  world,  Pagan,  Jewish,  or 
Christian;  nothing  in  unfulfilled  prophecy  if  interpreted  in 
consistency  and  harmony  with  the  past;  nothing  in  the 
doctrinal  theology  of  the  Bil)lo,  or  any  ethical  science  built 
upon  it ;  there  is  nothing  in  all  or  any  of  these  which  justi- 
fies the  belief  of  a  self-restoring  power  of  man,  or  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  society  into  a  perfect  state,  or  any 
purpose  of  God  to  produce,  by  his  word  and  spirit,  in  con- 
nection with  natural  civilization,  a  universal  perfect  state 
before  the  dissolution  of  the  present  order  of  things,  and  the 
second  coming  of  Christ.  But,  contrarily,  it  is  evident, 
that  the  universal  perfect  state  which  is  promised  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures,  in  which  righteous  men  shall  possess  the 
earth,  God  has  provided  for  by  a  particular  and  express 
supernatural  covenant,  which  is  independent  and  exclusive 
of  all  natural  civilizations,  and  has  its  successive  fulfilments 
in  all  ages,  only  as  they  are  successively  overthrown.  .  .  . 

..."  It  cannot  fail  to  impress  the  diligent  student  of  the 
Bible,  that  the  inheritance  of  the  earth  is  not  promised  to 
mankind  in  general,  descended  by  ordinary  generation  from 
Adam,  who  is  of  the  earth,  and  earthly ;  but  only  to  the 
ccclesia,  who,  by  a  supernatural  generation,  are  descended 
from  the  second  Adam,  the  Lord  from  heaven.  To  Adam 
no  promise  was  made,  but  remotely  and  obscurely,  that  the 
seed  of  the  woman  should  bruise  the  serpent's  head.  To 
Noah  none  was  made,  but  in  respect  to  earthly  and  natui-al 
society.  '  But  to  Abraham  and  his  seed  were  the  promises 
made ; '  and  to  them  only  with  express  and  specific  limita- 
tions :  '  He  saith  not.  And  to  seeds,  as  of  many ;  but  as  of 
one,  And  to  thy  seed,  which  is  Christ.'  Only  in  this  dis- 
tinct and  independent  supernatural  line  do  we  obtain  :  '  If 
ye  are  Christ's,  then  are  ye  Abraham's  seed,  and  heirs  accord- 
ing to  the  promise.'  The  inheritance  is  equally  specific ; 
namely,  the  regenerated  earth  :  '  For,  in  thy  seed  shall  all 
the  families  of  the  earth  be  blessed.'  Till  that  predicted 
time  of  restitution,  when  the 


33* 


'  Redeemer,  King,  Creator, 
Returns,  in  bliss  to  reign,' 


890  ONE'  HUNDRED    "WITNESSES, 


the  earth  is  alien,  -wicked,  and  abominable.  It  is  vexed  by 
fallen  spirits,  by  the  passions  of  evil  men,  and  all  the  re- 
lated ills  of  a  fallen  state.  It  is  plagued  by  unchristian  and 
anti-Christian  powers,  that  fill  it  ^Yith  confusions,  violence, 
and  crime.  These  allied  powers  of  evil  are  emphatically 
symbolized  in  Scripture  as  ferocious  wild  beasts,  and  their 
course  is  described  equally  by  letter  and  by  symbol,  till  it 
is  terminated  by  judgments  of  God:  Dan.  vii." — Intro- 
ductory  Notes  to  a  Volume  of  the  Sermons  of  his  Son, 
the  Rev.  J.  K.  Lord,  pp.  79—82.     A.  D.  1850. 

From  the  Rev.  John  King  Lord. 

(Late  Pastor  of  the  First  Orthodox  Congregational  Church  in  Cincinnati.) 

At  the  installation  of  Rev.  Clark  Perry,  speaking  of  the 
"  utter  and  eternal  separation  between  the  church  and  the 
world,"  he  says: 

"The  methods  of  Divine  Providence,  and  the  operations 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  tend  to  this  separation,  and  not  to 
an  ultimate  absorption  of  the  world  by  the  church.  The 
present  age  is  the  period  during  which  this  work  is  to  be 
consummated.  We  expect,  in  the  end  of  the  age,  the  com- 
plete distinction.  As  to  particular  circumstances,  and  times, 
and  operations,  we  have  no  knowledge.  We  know  barely 
the  general  facts  that  God  will  discern  ultimately  between 
the  righteous  and  the  wicked,  and  that  the  whole  course  of 
human  aifairs  is  directed  towards  that  decision.  To  express 
the  matter  in  its  simplest  form,  we  know  that,  in  the  pre- 
dicted millennial  glory  of  the  church,  all  the  individuals, 
who,  through  their  election  of  God  in  Christ,  constitute  the 
church,  will  share ;  whilst  all  who  are  not  ordained  to  eter- 
nal life,  and  enrolled  among  the  members  of  Christ's  mys- 
tical body,  Avill  be  forever  excluded  from  it.  All  believers 
will  receive  the  promise  ;  all  unbelievers  will  come  short  of 
it,  no  matter  where  they  lived,  nor  when  they  lived.  Isaiah 
looked  for  the  glory  of  the  Messianic  age ;  Abraham  looked 
for  it ;  Paul  looked  for  it ;  we  who  are  Christians  look  for  it. 
We  shall  see  it  and  share  in  it ;  and  so  will  they.  They 
have  the  same  interest  in  it  that  we  have.  They  hoped  for 
it,  prayed  for  it,  labored  for  it,  just  as  we  do.  They  had 
the  same  grounds  for  expecting  it  that  we  have.     Surely, 


TESTIMONY    OF   PRESBYTERIANS,    ETC.  391 


when  it  comes,  -when  all  the  prophecies  of  Messiah's  reign 
shall  be  fulfilled,  and  Jerusalem  shall  be  rebuilt,  and  the 
fulness,  the  full  number  of  the  Gentiles,  shall  come  in,  and 
Israel,  those  called  in  Isaac,  shall  be  saved,  surely  in  that 
day  of  rejoicing  the  whole  church  of  the  fiiithful,  without 
an  exception,  shall  bear  their  part. 

"Now,  here  is  unfolded  the  whole  objective  design  of  re- 
demption ;  not  an  imperfect  church,  greatly  extended,  but 
a  holy  church,  absolutely  triumphant;  not  an  intangible 
presence,  but  a  visible  manifestation  of  Christ.  This  is 
rest,  the  glory  promised  to  Zion.  Nothing  inferior  to  this 
in  nature,  nothing  anterior  in  time,  will  answer  the  promise. 
The  dispensation  introduced  at  the  birth  of  Jesus  did  not 
answer  it.  The  sharpest  trials  of  the  church  have  been 
since  the  death  of  Christ.  The  remaining  period  of  this 
dispensation  will  not  answer  it ;  for  still  sharper  trials  await 
the  church  in  order  to  its  purification.  Deceivers  of  un- 
paralleled subtlety,  scoffers  of  the  bitterest  malignity,  false 
Christs,  who  shall  work  lying  wonders,  are  to  arise.  The 
]\Ian  of  Sin  is  to  be  revealed  in  all  his  giant  proportions. 
'  False  teachers  shall  introduce  themselves,  who  privily 
shall  bring  in  damnable  heresies,  even  denying  the  Lord 
that  Ijought  them,  and  bring  upon  themselves  swift  destruc- 
tion. And  many  shall  follow  their  pernicious  ways,  by 
reason  of  whom  the  way  of  truth  shall  be  evil  spoken  of 
So  great  will  be  the  confusion,  that  the  righteous  shall 
scarcely  be  saved.  Certainly  here  is  not,  here  cannot  be, 
the  rest  of  the  church.  It  remaineth.  The  fruits  and 
flowers  of  Paradise  will  not  grow  on  this  accursed  soil.  Joy 
hath  no  home  beneath  these  overhanging  cypresses,  and  in 
the  shadows  of  the  tomb.  The  songs  of  the  redeemed  can- 
not be  suncj  in  so  strange  a  land.  Everything  here  is  for 
trial,  not  for  reward  ;  for  increase  of  sanctification,  not  for 
perfection.  This  is  the  desert.  Mount  Sinai  is  in  it,  cov- 
ered with  the  lightnings  that  announce  the  presence  of  Jeho- 
vah ;  Mount  Pisgah  is  in  it,  whence  faith  may  discern  the 
coming  glory ;  the  tabernacle  is  in  it,  and  the  Shekinah, 
and  tile  pillar  of  cloud  and  flame ;  but  it  is  the  desert  still. 
Out  there,  beyond  those  swelling  waves,  whose  further  shores 
glisten  in  the  reflected  light  of  promise,  beyond  those  dis- 
tant mountains  where  watchmen  listen  for  the  sound  of 


392  ONE   HUNDRED   WITNESSES. 

chariot-wheels,  beyond  the  reach  of  the  noise  and  tumult  of 
earth — out  there  is  the  glorious  land  of  our  hopes.  Thither 
our  footsteps  are  tending.  When  the  eternal  purposes,  now 
hidden  in  the  mind  of  the  Father,  shall  have  been  wrought 
out,  the  course  of  this  world  will  be  finished,  the  year  of 
the  Redeemed  will  come,  the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the 
people  of  God  will  be  theirs  forever."  —  Sermons  of  Rev. 
J.  K.  Lord,  pp.  104—6. 

He  died  A.  D.  1849.  His  dying  words  were,  "  Tell  the 
church  to  hold  on  till  Christ  comes." 

From  the  Rev.  John  Richards,  D.D. 

(Congregational  Minister  in  Hanover,  N.  H.) 

"  In  every  case  of  preaching  the  Gospel  to  a  nation  or 
tribe,  it  is  a  witness  —  sometimes  only  a  witness  for  evil, 
but  usually  both  a  witness  for  evil  and  a  witness  for  good. 
Yet  in  no  instance  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  it  been 
the  saving  instrument  to  the  many  of  such  a  nation  or  tribe, 
but  only  to  the  few. 

"We  reach,  then,  this  conclusion.  The  Gospel  has  been 
preached  in  the  world  for  eighteen  hundred  years,  with  just 
such  results  as  our  Saviour  implied  in  Matthew  24,  and  in 
the  great  commission  —  for  a  witness  —  a  witness  resulting 
only  in  evil  to  the  many,  a  saving  instrument  but  to  the 
few.  There  have  been  great  fluctuations  indeed,  alterna- 
tions of  hope  and  disappointment,  success  and  its  absence. 
In  Europe,  ten  centuries  of  dark  ages,  and  then  the  Reform- 
ation ;  in  New  England,  a  great  revival  in  the  eighteenth 
century,  and  then  forty  years  of  adversity;  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  several  seasons  of  general  refreshing,  with 
corresponding  depression  succeeding.  But  through  all 
these  ages  God  has  been  gathering  in  his  elect,  while  the 
Gospel  has  been  chiefly  a  witness  in  them  that  are  lost. 
How  long  will  this  state  of  things,  this  general  aspect  of  the 
church  and  the  world,  continue?  We  answer,  unhesitating- 
ly, until  the  end  ;  for  that  is  what  Christ  declares :  '  This 
Gospel  of  the  kingdom  must  first  be  preached  in  all  the 
world  for  a  witness  unto  all  nations,  and  then  shall  the  end 
come."  —  Theological  and  Literary  Journal,  vol.  vi.,  p. 
669. 


testimony  of  presbyterians,  etc.  393 

From  the  Rev.  Thomas  Wickes. 

(Pastor  of  the  First  Congregational  Church  in  Marietta,  Ohio.) 

"  I  would  earnestly  recommend  to  my  hearers  to  read  the 
New  Testament  carefully,  and  notice  how  this  coming,  and 
revelation,  and  appearing  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  continually 
alluded  to  as  the  hope  of  the  church ;  and  how  the  people 
of  God  are  encouraged  to  endure  through  this  present  dark 
jjcriod  of  tribulation  unto  that  glorious  day  —  to  persevere 
unto  the  end,  watching  and  waitin2:  for   the   coming  of  the 

T  1 

Lord. 

"  If  Christ  comes  at  the  termination  of  this  period  of 
reigning  iniquity  and  delusion,  he  is  coming  quickly;  and 
we  who  love  his  appearing  may  wait  the  glorious  day  of 
redemption,  when  our  Immanuel  Jesus  shall  take  the  scep- 
tre, and  reign  so  long  as  the  moon  endureth."  —  Wiclccs 
on  the  Apomli/psc,  pp.  367,  368.     A.  D.  1851. 

From  Rev.  Hiram  Carlton. 

(Congregational  Minister  in  Barnstable,  Mass.) 

"  As  the  literal  reign  of  the  saints  with  Christ  on  earth 
was  an  essential  element  in  the  creed  of  the  Jews  respect- 
ing the  resuiTcction,  where  could  they  have  obtained  their 
views  ?  Certainly  not  from  reason,  for  reason  never  dared 
to  conjecture." — Theo.  t5*  LH-  Jour.,  p.  37.    A.  D.  1854, 

"  The  privilege  of  reigning  with  Christ  appertains  to  the 
saints  in  a  glorified  and  risen  state.  The  condition  of  the 
privilege  of  reigning  with  him  is  suffering  with  him,  re- 
maining steadfast  during  the  time  of  sojourn  in  a  mortal 
body,  subject  to  conflicts  with  the  world  and  Satan.  Con- 
sequently, the  reigning  is  beyond  this  life.  '  And  the  sacred 
Scriptures  place  it  in  the  resurrection  state ;  when  the 
saints  will  be  raised  in  a  baly  like  unto  that  glorious  body 
of  Christ,  with  which  he  will  appear,  and  in  which  he  will 
reign."— 76.,  p.  399. 

From  David  K  Lord,  Esq. 

(Editor  of  tho  Theological  and  Literary  Journal.) 

"  It  is  expressly  revealed  that  Christ  is  ...  to  descend  vis- 
ibly and  assume  the  dominion  of  the  race.  ...  He  is  to  raise 


394  ONE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

the  holy  dead  from  their  graves ;  invest  them  with  the  offices 
of  kings  and  priests ;  and  cause  them  to  reign  with  him  on  the 
earth.  He  is  to  judge  and  accept  the  living  saints,  change 
them  from  mortal  to  immortal,  and  give  them  to  live  in  un- 
spotted rectitude  and  blessedness  under  his  reign.  We  are 
explicitly  assured,  by  the  voice  of  the  Redeemer  himself, 
that  they  are  then  to  be  freed  from  the  curse,  want,  toil, 
sorrow,  death,  brought  on  the  race  by  Adam,  and  enter  on 
a  life,  in  that  respect,  wholly  new." —  Tlieo.  i^*  Lit.  Jour., 
p.  667.     A.  D.  1850. 

From  Eleazar  Lord,  Esq. 

(Author  of  the  "  Epoch  of  Creation,"  "  The  Messiah,"  &c.) 

"  The  course  of  things  eventually  to  be  realized  on  earth 
will  be  such  as  would  have  taken  place  from  the  beginning, 
had  no  apostasy  occurred.  The  apostasy  and  the  curse  on 
man  and  the  earth  will  be  overcome.  The  antagonism  be- 
tween the  Mediator  and  the  adversary  will  cease.  The 
earth,  freed  from  the  curse  and  from  all  enemies,  renovated, 
restored  to  its  original  beauty,  will  be  the  perpetual  scene 
of  holiness  and  happiness." —  The  Messiah,  p^  32-4.  A.  D. 
1853. 


testimony  of  missiowakies  op  the  cross. 
From  the  Rev.  Joseph  Wolf. 

(Missionary  to  Persia  and  Asia  Minor.) 

"Mullah  Mohammed  .  .  .  said  that  he  was  glad  to  find 
that  I  expect  the  speedy  arrival  of  the  Messiah  Jesus." — 
Missionary  Labors,  p.  58.    A.  D.  1831. 

"He  died  for  our  sins;  rose  again;  went  to  heaven, 
whence  he  shall  come  again,  according  to  my  opinion,  in  the 
year  1847,  and  reign  at  Jerusalem  a  thousand  years." — 
lb.,  p.  131. 

To  Chakam  M.  "I  made  the  observation  that  the  time 
must  be  very  nigh  that  Messiah  will  come." 

^^  M.   'Do  you  believe  in  the  coming  of  the  Messiah? ' 

"/..  'I  should  not  be  a  true  believer  in  the  law  and  the 
prophets,  if  I  did  not  believe  that  he  will  soon  come,  and 
the  walls  of  Jerusalem  will  be  built  again.'  " — Memoir,  p. 


TESTIMONY   OF   MISSIONARIES.  395 

"I,  Joseph  Wolf,  shall  see,  with  my  own  eyes,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  in  their  bodies,  in  their  glorified  bodies ; 
and  I  shall  see  thee,  Elijah  ;  and  thee,  Isaiah ;  and  thee, 
Jeremiah;  and  thee,  David,  Avhose  songs  have  guided  me 
to  Jesus  of  Nazareth  ;  I  shall  see  you  all  here  at  Jerusa- 
lem, where  I  am  writing  these  lines." — See  p.  64. 

From  the  Rev.  II.  W.  Fox,  B.A. 

(Late  Missionary  from  England  to  the  Teloogoo  people.) 

"We  are  all  daily  longing  and  praying  for  the  speedy 
coming  of  our  Lord  to  restore  all  things ;  and  sometimes 
we  are  apt  to  wonder  why  lie  delays  his  coming.  But  it  is 
not  lie,  but  we,  who  arc  the  cause  of  the  delay.  He  can- 
not come,  as  he  said,  until  the  Gospel  has  been  preached  in 
all  nations  for  a  witness ;  and  he  has  oi'dered  his  faithful 
people  to  go  and  preach  it.  But  wc  don't  go,  and  the  Gos- 
pel is  not  yet  preached,  and  so  his  return  is  delayed.  When 
I  have  been  in  a  village  preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  king- 
dom, I  feel,  '  Now  there  is  one  more  obstacle  to  Christ's 
return  removed.' '' — Memoir,  p.  332.     A.  D.  1850. 

"  That  He  will  come  in  the  flesh,  in  infinite  glory,  visible 
to  all  men ;  and  that,  at  his  coming,  the  dead  shall  be  raised 
and  the  living  changed,  is  a  fact  which  1  Thess.  and  1  Cor. 
15  do  not  allow  us  to  doubt.  Further,  that  up  to  the  time 
of  His  coming  the  mass  of  mankind  Avill  be  unconverted 
and  unbelieving,  is  also  distinctly  suited  in  Matt.  24  and 
elsewhere.  ...  I  have  a  strong  anticipation  that  the  time  is 
not  far  distant." — lb.,  p.  246. 

From  Rev.  Walter  M.  Lowrie. 

(Late  Missionary  of  the  A.  E.  C.  F.  M.  to  the  Cliincsc.) 

"  Since  Avriting  to  you  last,  I  have  adopted  many  of  the 
millenarian  views  in  regard  to  the  second  advent  of  Christ, 
the  return  of  the  Jews,  &:c.  They  seem  to  make  many 
things  in  the  history  of  missions,  that  were  dark  before, 
much  more  plain  and  encouraging.  I  find  much  satisfaction 
in  them,  and  often  long  inexpressibly  for  the  '  coming  and  ap- 
pearing '  of  our  Lord.  0  !  to  be  found  doing  his  work 
when  he  comes,  and  not  idling  in  the  field  to  which  he  has 
sent  me  !  " — Memoir,  p.  357. 


396  ONE   HUNDRED    WITNESSES. 

"  I  perceive  we  shall  not  agree  about  Millenarianism,  and 
I  hardly  know  whether  it  is  worth  while  to  open  on  the  sub- 
ject. I  still  find  much  comfort  and  encouragement  in  it. 
But  the  question  of  comfort  and  encouragement  is  not  the 
jast  one.  Is  it  in  the  Scripture  ?  If  it  is,  then  '  He  that 
doeth  his  will  shall  know  of  the  doctrine,'  and  enjoy  its 
fruits.  I  have  lost  none  of  my  confidence  in  preaching,  but 
rather  have  felt  it  increased  by  means  of  these  views." — 
lb.,  p.  389. 

From  the  Rev.  Daniel  Poor,  D.D. 

(Late  American  Missionary  to  Ceylon;  born  A.  D.  1789;  died  1855.) 

Speaking  of  "  The  Saint's  Inheritance,"  a  valuable  work, 
by  H.  F.  Hill,  of  Geneseo,  N.  Y.,  he  writes : 

"I  am  happy  to  find  the  writer  so  well  grounded  in  what 
I  have  long  regarded  the  j)rimarij  and  fundamental  point 
of  the  whole  subject,  viz.  :  That  the  second  advent,  accord- 
ing to  the  Scriptures,  is  to  take  place  at  the  introduction  or 
commencement  of  the  millennium,  rather  than  at  its  termina- 
tion ;  and  that  Christ  is  coming  to  redeem  the  earth,  to  reign 
during  a  thousand  years." — Inheritance^  p.  272. 

From  the  Eev.  F.  De  "W.  Ward. 

(Late  American  Missionary  to  India,  and  now  Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  in  Geneseo,  N.  Y.) 

In  commending  the  above-named  work  of  Mr.  Hill,  he 
says : 

"  Neither  the  intellect  nor  piety  of  that  person  is  at  all 
to  be  envied  who  can  refrain  from  thoughtful  meditation 
upon  questions  like  these  :  What  is  to  become  of  this  vast 
globe  ?     Is  is  literally  to  be  dissolved,  and 

'  Like  the  baseless  fabric  of  a  vision 
Leave  not  a  wreck  behind  '  ? 

Is  it  to  be  the  victim  of  some  future  explosion,  which 
shall  send  its  mighty  masses  hurling  through  space,  to  fall 
upon  other  planets,  like  the  aerolites  upon  our  own?  Or  is 
it  to  be  made  over  and  become  as  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  a 
fit  abode  for, man  to  pass  an  etei^nity  of  immortality  and 
blessedness  ?  Are  all  mankind  to  be  put  in  possession  of 
the  sacred  volume,  and  thus  become  individually  perfect  in 


CONCLUDIXG    REMARKS.  397 


knowledge,  love,  purity,  and  every  heavenly  grace  ?  or  are 
multitudes  to  be  overwhelmed  with  destruction  by  an  Al- 
mighty arm,  and  thus  the  victory  be  achieved?  Again  :  Is 
our  Lord  to  revisit  our  earth  in  person,  with  an  union  of 
majestic  splendor  and  glory  only  cfjualled  by  the  humilia- 
tion and  distress  which  attended  his  former  mission  ? 
Again  :  What  mean  the  Scriptures  by  the  millennium  — 
tlie  first  and  second  resurrection  —  the  battle  of  Gog  and 
Magog  —  the  ministry  of  angels,  and  the  extent  of  the  Jew- 
ish covenants  ?  These  arc  questions  of  admitted  interest, 
and  will  merit  a  thoughtful  consideration.  To  say  '  we  do 
not  know,'  is  a  ready  mode  of  reply,  but  surely  should  not 
satisfy  the  Christian,  whose  aim  should  be  intcUifjenrc  as  well 
as  puhj.  This  may  be  his  decision,  but  it  should  be  arrived 
at  considerately."' — /6.,  p.  266. 


IS  SUCH  TESTIMONY  OF  NO   VALUE? 

The  foregoing  extracts  demonstrate  conclusively  that  the 
doctrines  of  the  prc-millennial  advent,  the  restoration  of  the 
earth  to  its  Eden  state,  the  reign  of  Christ  Avith  the  saints  on 
earth,  and  the  duty  of  living  in  constant  expectation  of  those 
events,  are  not  novelties,  but  are  sustained  by  venerable 
fathers,  as  well  as  by  others  in  the  church.  There  is  the 
testimony  of  Gentile  and  Jew,  of  bishop,  priest,  and  layman, 
of  prince  and  people,  of  churchman  and  dissenter,  of  Calvin- 
ist  and  Arminian,  of  reformer  and  martyr,  of  pastors  of 
churches  and  missionaries  of  the  cross  to  heathen  lands. 
And,  though  the  opinion  of  no  man  —  whether  he  be  "in 
surplice  or  in  gown,  in  ermine  or  in  lawn,  or  in  royal  robe," 
or  if  he  be  arrayed  in  plain  attire  —  is  of  any  authority, 
except  as  it  accords  with  the  Word  of  God,  yet  such  testi- 
monies from  such  Avitnesses  are  worthy  of  consideration  by 
intelligent  and  pious  minds.  The  fact  that  "  so  great  a 
cloud  of  witnesses."  and  men  of  such  distinguished  intellectual 
and  moral  worth,  have  found  —  some  of  them  one.  and  some 
of  them  all  —  those  doctrines  in  the  Word  of  Go<l,  and  have 
rested  on  them  with  comfort  and  hope,  not  only  in  the 
palace,  but  in  the  dungeon  and  at  the  stake — "not  accepting 
34 


398  ONE    HUNDRED    AVITXESSES. 

deliverance,  that  they  nnight  obtain  a  better  resurrection" — 
this  fact  should  lead  all  who  venerate  the  Word  to  study 
•well  its  teachings  before  they  declare  their  indifference  to 
such  doctrines,  or  reject  them  as  the  vagaries  of  fanatical 
and  unsanctified  imaginations.  What  saitii  the  Scriptures? 
If  these  Avitnesses  speak  not  in  accordance  with  God's  Word, 
there  is  no  light  in  them.  But  if  they  do  thus  speak,  how 
important  is  their  testimony,  or  rather  the  testimony  of  the 
prophetic  oracles,  in  the  Avords  of  Avhich  they  express  their 
faith  respecting  the  times  in  A\'hich  Ave  live ! 

Professed  ambassadors  of  Christ  may  refuse  to  note  the 
signs  of  the  times,  nor  return  an  answer  to  the  question  so 
oft  and  so  earnestly  put  to  them,  "Watchman,  Avhat  of  the 
night?"  they  may  select  texts  of  Scripture  as  mottoes,  and 
annex  to  them  brilliantly-framed  human  compositions,  A\'hich 
delight  the  intellect,  and  carry  no  disquiet  to  the  unsanctified 
heart  —  amusing  their  hearers  Avith  fancifully-drawn  theories 
of  human  perfectibility,  and  long  years  of  peace  before  the 
judgment;  but  are  they  "faithful  and  Avise  servants,"  who 
are  giving  the  Lord's  household  meat  in  due  season  ?  Are 
they  obeying  the  injunction  Avhich  the  Lord  has  given  to 
all,  to  "watch"? 

Surely,  the  path  of  safety  is  that  in  Avhich  the  apostles 
trod.  Ministers  of  the  Gospel  should  preach  as  they  preached, 
and  Christians  should  believe  as  they  believed ;  and  then  sin- 
ners noAV,  as  then,  Avould  turn  "from  idols  to  serve  the  liv- 
ing and  true  God,  and  to  wait  for  His  Son  from  heaven," — 
not  as  an  event  in  the  distant  future,  not  as  one  the  day  and 
hour  or  year  of  which  is  knoAvn,  but  one  which  may  come 
at  any  moment,  and  Avhich  may  be  regarded  as  now  em- 
phatically nigh,  even  at  the  doors.  Said  the  Rev.  Hugh 
McNeile,  in  his  Address  to  the  Clergy : 

"  My  Reverend  Brethren,  watch,  preach  the  coming  of 
Jesus — I  charge  you,  in  the  name  of  our  coming  Master, 
preach  the  cominfj  of  Jesus.  Solemnly  and  affectionately, 
in  the  name  of  God,  I  charge  you  preach  the  coming  of 
Jesus.  '  Watch  ye,  therefore  (for  ye  know  not  when  the 
master  of  the  house  cometh,  at  even,  or  at  midnight,  or  at 
cock-crowing,  or  in  the  morning),  lest,  coming  suddenly,  He 
find  you  sleeping.'  Take  care  !  '  What  I  say  unto  you,  I  say 
unto  all,  watch.'  " 


I 


THE   HOPE   OF   ISRAEL. 


In  the  extracts  from  different  writers,  in  the  foreijoinj; 
pages,  there  are  not  a  few  references  to  a  return  of  Israel, 
■which  are  believed  by  the  compiler  of  this  volume  to  be  not 
in  accordance  Avith  the  teachings  of  Scripture, —  his  view 
being  that  all  unfulfilled  promises  to  Israel  arc  to  have 
their  fulfilment  in  the  resurrection  to  an  immortal  state, 
or  change  to  innnortality  of  the  pious  who  are  living  at  the 
epoch  of  the  Second  Advent,  of  all  the  descendants  of 
Abraham  who  shall  have  died  in  his  faith,  and  their  resto- 
ration to  the  mountains  of  Judea,  Avhen  rescued  from  the 
curse  in  the  restitution  :  the  pious  of  all  nations  being 
blessed  with  faithful  Abraham,  in  the  bestowal  on  the  meek 
of  the  earth,  for  their  inheritance, —  the  kingdom  and  do- 
minion, and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom  under  the  whole 
heaven,  being  then  given  to  the  people  of  the  saints  of  the 
Most  High  for  an  eternal  possession. 

Mr.  Fairbairn,  in  his  "  Typology  of  Scripture,"  argues 
that  the  promise  of  Canaan  to  Abraham  was  typical  of  the 
possession  of  all  the  earth  by  the  redeemed.  Discarding 
this  view  of  the  subject,  his  argument  is  still  good  respect- 
ing the  nature  and  subject  of  the  promise  made  to  '•the 
father  of  the  faithful."     He  says: 

"It  is  of  importance  that  we  mark  the  precise  words  of 
the  promise  to  Abraham,  concerning  this  inheritance.  As 
it  first  occurs,  it  runs,  '  Get  thee  out  of  thy  country,  and 
from  thy  kindred,  and  from  thy  father's  house,  unto  a  land 
that  I  will  show  thee,  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  na- 
tion,' &c.  —  Gen.  12:  1.  Then,  when  he  reached  Canaan, 
the  promise  was  renewed  to  him  in  these  terms :  '  Unto  thy 
seed  will  I  give  this  land.' — v,  7.  More  fully  and  defi- 
nitely, after  Lot  separated  from  Abraham,  was  it  again 
given :  '  Lift  up  now  thine  eyes,  and  look  from  the  place 
where  thou  art  nortliward,  and  southward,  and  eastward,  and 


400  THE    HOPE    OF    ISRAEL. 

westward  ;  for  all  the  land  which  thou  seest,  to  thee  will  I 
give  it,  and  to  thy  seed  for  ever.' — 13:  14,  15.  Again,  in 
chap.  15  :  7,  '  I  am  the  Lord  that  brought  thee  out  of  Ur 
of  the  Chaldees,  to  give  thee  this  land  to  inherit  it ; '  and 
toward  the  close  of  the  same  chapter  it  is  said,  '  In  the 
same  day  the  Lord  made  a  covenant  with  Abram,  saying, 
Unto  thy  seed  have  I  given  this  land,  from  the  river  of 
Egypt,  unto  the  great  river.'  In  chapter  17th  the  prom- 
ise was  more  formally  converted  into  a  covenant,  and  sealed 
by  the  ordinance  of  circumcision  ;  and  there  the  words  used 
respecting  the  inheritance  are  :  '  I  will  give  unto  thee,  and 
to  thy  seed  after  thee,  the  land  wherein  thou  art  a  stranger, 
all  the  land  of  Canaan,  for  an  everlasting  possession,  and  I 
will  be  their  God.'  We  read  only  of  one  occasion  in  the 
life  of  Isaac  when  he  received  the  promise  of  the  inherit- 
ance, and  the  words  then  used  were,  '  Unto  thee,  and  unto 
thy  seed,  will  I  give  all  these  countries,  and  I  will  perform 
the  oath  which  I  sware  unto  Abraham,  thy  fither.' — chap. 
26  :  3.  Such  also  were  the  words  addressed  to  Jacob  at 
Bethel,  *  I  am  the  Lord  God  of  Abraham  thy  father,  and 
the  God  of  Isaac ;  the  land  whereon  thou  liest  to  thee  will  I 
give  it,  and  to  thy  seed ; '  and  in  precisely  the  same  terms 
was  the  promise  again  made  to  Jacob  many  years  afterwards, 
as  recorded  in  chap.  35  :  12. 

"It  cannot  but  appear  striking  that  to  each  one  of  these 
patriarchs  successively  the  promise  of  the  land  of  Canaan 
should  have  been  given,  first  to  themselves,  and  then  to  their 
posterity, —  while,  during  their  own  lifetimes,  they  never 
were  permitted  to  get  beyond  the  condition  of  strangers  and 
pilgrims,  and,  as  having  no  right  to  any  possession  within 
its  borders,  were  obliged  to  purchase  at  the  marketable  value 
a  small  field  for  a  burying-ground.  How  shall  we  account 
for  the  promise,  then,  so  uniformly  running  '  to  thee,'  and 
to  '  thy  seed  '  ?  Some,  as  Ainsworth  and  Bush,  tell  us  that 
and  here  is  the  same  as  even,  to  thee,  even  to  thy  seed ;  as 
if  a  man  were  all  one  with  his  oifspring,  or  the  nnme  of  the 
latter  were  but  another  name  for  himself!  Gill  gives  a 
somewhat  more  plausible  turn  to  it,  thus :  '  God  gave 
Abrara  the  title  to  it  now,  and  to  them  the  possession  of  it 
for  future  tiines  ;  gave  him  it  to  sojourn  in  now  when  he 
pleased,  and  for   his   posterity  to  dwell   in  hereafter.'     But 


THE    HOPE    OF   ISRAEL.  401 


the  gift  was  the  land  for  an  inheritance,  not  for  a  phice  of 
sojourn :  and  a  title  which  left  him  personally  wiihout  a 
foot's-breadth  of  possession  could  not  be  regarded  in  tliat 
light  as  any  real  boon  to  him.  Warburton,  as  usual,  con- 
fronts the  difficulty  more  boldly  :  '  In  the  literal  sense  it  is 
a  promise  of  the  land  of  Canaan  to  Abraham  and  to  his  pos- 
terity ;  and  irt  this  sense  it  was  literally  fulfilled,  though 
Abraham  was  never  personally  in  possession  of  it :  since 
Abraham  and  his  posterity,  put  collectively,  signify  the 
RACE  OF  Abiiaiiaa[  ;  and  that  race  possessed  the  land  of 
Canaan.  And  surely  God  may  be  allowed  to  explain  his 
own  promise ;  now,  though  he  tells  Abraham  he  would 
give  him  the  land,  yet  at  the  same  time  he  assured  him  that  it 
would  be  many  hundred  years  before  his  posterity  should 
be  put  in  possession  of  it  —  Gen.  15  :  13,  &c.  Anil  as  con- 
cerning himself,  that  he  should  go  to  his  fathers  in  peace, 
and  be  buried  in  a  good  old  age.  Thus  we  sec  that  both 
what  God  explained  to  be  his  meaning,  and  what  Abraham 
understood  him  to  mean,  was,  that  his  posterity,  after  a  cer- 
tain time,  should  be  led  into  possession  of  the  land.' 

"  But  if  this  were  really  the  whole  meaning,  the  thought 
naturally  occurs,  it  is  strange  so  plain  a  meaning  should 
have  been  so  ambiguously  expressed.  Why  not  simply  say 
'thy  posterity,'  if  posterity  alone  were  intended,  and  save 
commentators  from  the  clumsy  expedient  of  having  to  throw 
a  man,  with  his  immediate  descendants,  into  the  same  bun- 
dle with  his  later  posterity,  as  together  making  up  one  race, 
in  order  to  cover  the  palpable  incorrectness  of  the  words  in 
their  obvious  meaning  ?  AVhy  also  should  the  promise  have 
been  renewed  at  a  later  period,  with  a  pointed  distinction 
between  Abraham  and  his  posterity,  yet  with  an  assurance 
that  the  promise  was  to  him,  as  atcU  as  to  them, — '  And  I 
will  give  unto  thee,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee,  the  land 
wherein  thou  art  a  stranger '  ?  And  why  should  Stephen 
have  made  such  special  reference  to  the  apparent  incongru- 
ity between  the  personal  condition  of  Abraham  and  the 
promise  given  to  him,  as  if  there  were  some  further  mean- 
ing in  what  was  said  than  lay  on  the  surface, — '  He  gave  him 
none  inheritance  in  it,  no,  not  so  much  as  to  set  his  foot  on ; 
yet  he  promised  to  give  it  to  him  for  a  possession,  and  to 
his  seed  after  him  '  ?  —  Acts  7 :  5. 
84* 


402  THE    HOPE    OF    ISRAEL. 


"  We  do  not  see  how  these  questions  can  receive  any  satis- 
factory explanation,  so  long  as  no  account  is  made  of  the 
promise  personally  given  to  the  patriarchs.  And  there  are 
others  equally  left  without  explanation.  For  no  sufficient 
reason  can  be  assigned,  on  that  hypothesis,  for  the  extreme 
anxiety  of  Jacob  and  Joseph  to  have  their  bones  carried  to 
the  sepulchre  of  their  fathers,  in  the  land  of  Canaan  —  be- 
tokening, as  it  evidently  seemed  to  do,  a  conviction  that  to 
them  also  belonged  a  personal  interest  in  the  land.  Neither 
does  it  appear  how  the  fiict  of  Abraham  and  his  immediate 
offspring  '  confessing  that  they  were  strangers  and  pilgrims 
on  the  earth,'  which  they  did  no  otherwise,  that  we  are 
aware  of,  than  by  living  as  strangers  and  pilgrims  in  Ca- 
naan, should  have  proved  that  they  were  looking  for  and 
desiring  a  better  country,  that  is,  a  heavenly  one.  And 
then,  strange  to  think,  if  nothing  more  were  meant  by  the 
promise  than  the  view  now  under  consideration  would  im- 
ply, when  the  posterity  who  were  to  occupy  the  land  did 
obtain  possession  of  it,  we  find  the  men  of  f;iith  taking 
up  precisely  the  same  confession,  as  to  their  being  strangers 
and  pilgrims  in  it,  Avhich  was  witnessed  by  their  fore- 
fathers, who  never  had  it  in  possession.  Even  after  they 
became  possessors,  it  seems  they  were  still  like  their  wan- 
dering ancestors,  expectants  and  heirs  of  something  bet- 
ter ;  and  fliith  had  to  be  exercised,  lest  they  should  lose 
the  proper  fulfilment  of  the  promise  (Ps.  39  :  12  ;  95 ; 
119  :  19  ;  1  Chron.  29  :  15).  Surely,  if  the  earthly  Ca- 
naan had  been  the  whole  inheritance  they  were  warrant/3d 
to  look  for,  after  they  were  settled  in  it,  the  condition 
of  pilgrims  and  strangers  no  longer  was  theirs :  they 
had  reached  their  proper  destiny  —  they  were  dwelling 
in  their  appointed  home  ^^— the  promise  had  received  its 
due  fulfilment. 

"  These  manifold  difficulties  and  apparent  inconsistencies 
will  vanish  —  (and  we  see  no  other  Avay  in  which  they 
can  be  satisfactorily  removed) — by  supposing,  what  is 
certainly  in  accordance  with  the  tenor  of  revelation,  that 
the  promise  of  Canaan  as  an  inheritance  to  the  people 
of  God  was  part  of  a  connected  and  growing  scheme  of 
preparatory  arrangements,  which  were  to  have  their 
proper  outgoing   and    final    termination    in    the  establish- 


THE    HOPE    OF    ISRAEL.  403 

ment  of  Christ's  everhvsting  kingdom.  Vie^'cd  thus,  the 
grant  of  Canaan  must  be  regarded  as  coming  in  the  room 
of  the  garden  of  Eden,  with  its  symbols  of  the  tree  of  life, 
and  the  cherubim  of  glory  —  as  representing  and  typifying 
the  inheritance  of  the  purchased  possession,  which,  in  the 
fulness  of  time,  was  to  be  brought  in  for  the  whole  elect 
family  of  God.  And  if  so,  then  we  may  naturally  expect 
the  following  consequences  to  have  arisen :  First,  that 
whatever  transactions  may  have  taken  place  concerning  the 
actual  Canaan,  these  would  be  all  ordered  so  as  to  subserve 
the  higher  design,  in  connection  with  which  the  appointment 
was  made ;  and,  second,  that  as  a  sort  of  veil  must  have 
been  allowed  meanwhile  to  hang  over  this  ultimate  design 
(for  the  issue  of  redemption  could  not  be  made  fully  mani- 
fest till  the  redemption  itself  was  brought  in),  a  certain  de- 
gree of  dubiety  would  attach  to  some  of  the  things  spoken 
regarding  it  —  these  would  appear  strange  or  impossible,  if 
viewed  only  in  reference  to  the  temporary  inheritance  — 
and  Avould  iiave  the  effect,  with  men  of  faith,  as  no  doubt 
they  were  intended,  to  compel  the  mind  to  break  through 
the  outward  shell  of  the  promise,  and  contemplate  the  rich 
kernel  enclosed  within.  Thus  the  promise  being  made  so 
distinctly  and  repeatedly  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
while  personally  they  were  allowed  no  settled  footing  in  the 
inheritance  bestowed,  could  scarcely  fail  to  impress  them, 
and  their  more  pious  descendants,  with  the  conviction  that 
higher  and  more  important  relations  were  included  under 
those  in  which  they  stood  to  the  land  of  Canaan  during 
their  earthly  sojourn,  and  such  as  required  another  order  of 
things  to  fulfil  them.  They  must  have  been  convinced  that, 
for  some  great  and  substantial  reason,  not  by  a  mere  fiction 
of  the  imagination,  they  had  been  identified  by  God  with 
tlieir  posterity  as  to  their  interest  in  the  promised  inherit- 
ance. And  so,  must  have  felt  shut  up  to  the  belief  that 
when  God's  purposes  were  completely  fulfilled,  his  word  of 
promise  would  be  literally  verified,  and  that  their  respective 
deaths  should  ultimately  be  found  to  raise  no  effectual  bar- 
rier in  the  way  of  their  actual  share  in  the  inheritance ;  as 
the  same  God,  who  would  have  raised  Isaac  from  the  dead, 
hud  he  been  put  to  death,  to   maintain  the  integrity  of  liis 


404  TUE    UOi'E    OF    ISRAEL. 

word,  was  equMlj  able,  when  the  same  reason  required  it, 
to  raise  them  up. 

"  Certainly  the  exact  and  perfect  manner  in  which  the 
other  line  of  promise,  that  which  respected  a  seed  to  Abra- 
ham, was  fulfilled,  gave  reason  to  expect  a  fulfilment,  in 
regard  to  this  also,  in  the  most  proper  and  complete  sense. 
Abraham  did  not  at  first  understand  how  closely  God's 
words  were  to  be  interpreted ;  and  after  waiting  in  vain  for 
some  years  for  the  promised  seed  by  Sarah,  he  began  to 
think  that  God  must  have  meant  an  offspring  that  should 
be  his  only  by  adoption,  and  seems  to  have  thought  of  con- 
stituting the  son  of  his  steward  his  heir.  Then,  when  ad- 
monished of  his  error  in  entertaining  such  a  thought,  and 
told  that  the  seed  was  to  spring  from  his  own  loins,  he  ac- 
ceded, after  another  long  period  of  fruitless  waiting,  to  the 
proposal  of  Sarah,  to  go  in  to  Hagar,  under  the  impression 
that  though  he  was  to  be  the  father  of  the  seed,  yet  it 
should  not  be  by  his  proper  wife ;  the  expected  good  was  to 
be  obtained  by  a  worldly  expedient,  and  to  be  his  only  in  a 
kind  of  secondary  sense.  Here  again,  however,  he  was  ad- 
monished of  error,  commanded  to  cease  from  such  crooked 
ways,  and  walk  in  uprightness  before  God ;  reminded  that 
he  who  made  the  promise  was  the  Almighty  God,  to 
whom,  therefore,  no  impossibility  connected  with  the  age  of 
Sarah  could  be  of  any  moment,  and  assured  that  the  long 
promised  child  was  to  be  the  son  of  him  and  his  lawful 
spouse.  (Gen.  17 :  1 — 17.)  And  when  Abraham  was 
thus  taught  to  interpret  one  part  of  the  promise  in  the  most 
exact  and  literal  sense,  how  natural  was  it  to  infer  that  he 
must  do  the  same  also  with  the  other  part !  If  when  God 
said,  'thou  shalt  be  the  father  of  a  seed,'  it  became  clear 
that  the  word  could  receive  nothing  short  of  the  highest 
possible  fulfilment,  what  else,  what  less  could  be  expected, 
when  God  said,  '  thou  shalt  inherit  this  land,'  than  that  the 
fulfilment  was  to  be  equally  proper  and  complete  ?  The 
providence  of  God,  which  furnished  such  an  interpretation 
in  the  one  case,  could  not  but  beget  the  conviction  that  a 
similar  spirit  of  interpretation  was  to  be  applied  to  the  other, 
and  that  as  the  promise  of  the  inheritance  Avas  given  to 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  as  well  as  to  their  seed,  so  it 


THE    HOPE    OF    ISRAEL.  405 


should  be  made  good  in  their  experience  not  less  than  in  that 
of  their  posterity. 

"  No  doubt,  such  a  belief  implied  th;it  there  must  be  a  res- 
urrection from  the  dead  before  the  promise  could  be  real- 
ized ;  and  to  those,  who  conceive  that  immortality  was 
altogether  a  blank  page  to  the  eye  of  an  ancient  Israelite, 
the  idea  may  seem  to  carry  its  own  refutation  along  with  it. 
The  Rabbis,  however,  with  all  their  lilindncss,  seem  to  have 
had  juster  because  more  scriptural  notions  of  the  truth  and 
purposes  of  God,  in  this  respect.  For,  on  E.\.  G  :  4,  the 
Talmud  in  Gcmara,  in  reply  to  the  question,  'Where  docs 
the  law  teach  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  ? '  thus  distinctly 
answers:  '  In  that  place  where  it  is  said,  J  have  established 
my  covenant  with  thee,  to  give  thee  the  land  of  Canaan. 
For  it  is  not  said  with  ynii  but  thee  (lit.  yourselves).'  The 
same  answer  substantially,  we  are  told,  was  returned  by 
Rabbi  Gamaliel,  when  the  Sadducees  pressed  him  with  a 
similar  question.  And  in  a  passage  quoted  by  Warburton 
(B.  G  :  sec.  3)  from  Manassch  Ben-Israel,  we  find  the  ar- 
gument still  more  fully  stated :  '  God  said  to  Abraham,  I 
will  give  to  thee,  and  to  thy  seed  after  thee,  the  land  where- 
in thou  art  a  stranger.  But  it  appears  that  Abraham  and 
the  other  patriarchs  did  not  possess  that  land;  therefore  it  is 
of  necessity  that  they  should  be  raised  up  to  enjoy  the  good 
promises, —  else  the  promises  of  God  should  be  vain  and 
false.  So  that  we  have  here  a  proof,  not  only  of  the  im- 
mortality of  the  soul,  but  also  of  the  essential  foundation 
of  the  law,  namely,  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.'  It  is 
surely  not  too  much  to  suppose,  that  what  Jewish  Rabbis 
could  so  certainly  diaw  from  the  word  of  God  may  have 
been  perceived  by  wise  and  holy  patriarchs.  And  the  fact, 
of  which  an  inspired  writer  assures  us,  that  Abraham  so 
readily  believed  in  the  possible  resurrection  of  Isaac  to  a 
present  life,  is  itself  conclusive  proof  that  he  would  not  be 
slow  to  believe  in  his  own  resurrection  to  a  future  life,  when 
the  word  of  promise  seemed  no  otherwise  capable  of  receiv- 
ing its  [)ropor  fulfilment.  Indeed,  the  doctrine  of  a  resur- 
rection from  the  dead,  not  that  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  is  tlie  form  which  the  prospect  of  an  after-state  of  be- 
ing must  have  chiefly  assumed  in  the  minds  of  the  earlier 
believers,  because  that  which  most   obviously  and  naturally 


406  THE    HOPE    OF   ISRAEL. 

grew  out  of  the  promises  made  to  them,  as  well  as  most  ac- 
cordant with  their  native  cast  of  thought ;  and  nothing  but 
the  undue  influence  of  the  Gentile  philosophy  on  men's 
minds  could  have  led  them  to  imagine,  as  they  generally 
have  done,  the  reverse  to  have  been  the  case. 

"  In  the  writings  of  the  Greeks  and  Komans,  especially 
those  of  the  former,  we  find  the  distinction  constantly  drawn 
between  matter  and  spirit,  body  and  soul, —  and  the  one 
generally  represented  as  having  only  elements  of  evil  in- 
hering in  it,  and  the  other  elements  of  good.  So  far  from 
looking  for  the  resurrection  of  the  body  as  necessary  to 
the  final  well-being  of  men,  full  and  complete  happiness 
was  held  to  be  impossible  so  long  as  the  soul  was  united  to 
the  body.  Death  was  so  far  considered  by  them  a  boon, 
that  it  emancipated  the  ethereal  principle  from  its  prison- 
house  ;  and  their  visions  of  future  bliss,  when  such  visions 
were  entertained,  presented  to  the  eye  of  hope  scenes  of  de- 
light, in  which  the  disembodied  spirit  alone  was  to  find  its 
satisfaction  and  repose.  Hence  it  is  quite  natural  to  hear 
the  better  part  of  them  speaking  with  contempt  of  all  that 
concerned  the  body,  looking  upon  death  as  a  final  as  Avell 
as  a  happy  release  from  its  vile  affections,  and  promising 
themselves  a  perennial  enjoyment  in  the  world  of  spirits. 
'  In  what  way  shall  we  bury  you  ? '  said-  Crito  to  Socrates, 
immediately  before  his  death.  '  As  you  please,'  was  the 
reply.  '  I  cannot,  my  friends,  persuade  Crito  that  I  am 
the  Socrates  that  is  now  conversing  and  ordering  everything 
that  has  been  said ;  but  he  thinks  I  am  that  man  whom  he 
will  shortly  see  a  corpse,  and  asks  how  you  should  bury 
me.  But  what  I  have  all  alono-  been  talkino-  so  much 
about, —  that  when  I  shall  have  drunk  the  poison  I  shall  no 
longer  stay  with  you,  but  shall,  forsooth,  go  away  to  certain 
felicities  of  the  blest, —  this  I  seem  to  myself  to  have  been 
saying  in  vain,  whilst  comforting  at  the  same  time  you  and 
myself.'  And  in  another  part  of  the  same  dialogue  (Phtedo), 
after  speaking  of  the  impossibility  of  attaining  to  the  true 
knowledoie  and  discernment  of  thino;s,  so  lono-  as  the  soul  is 
kept  in  the  lumpish  and  impure  body,  he  is  represented  as 
congratulating  himself  on  the  prospect  now  immediately  be- 
fore him  :  '  If  these  things  are  true,  there  is  much  reason 
to  hope  that  he  wiio  has  reached  my  present  position  shall 


THE    HOPE    OF   ISRAEL.  407 

there  soon  abundantly  obtain  that  for  the  sake  of  which  I 
have  labored  so  hard  during  this  life;  so  that  I  encounter 
■with  a  lively  hope  my  appointed  removal.'  No  doubt  such 
representations  give  a  highly  colored  and  far  too  favorable 
view  of  the  expectations  which  even  the  better  part  of  the 
heathen  world  cherish  of  a  future  state  of^being, —  for  to 
most  of  them  the  whole  was  overshadowed  with  doubt  and 
uncertainty,  too  often,  indeed,  the  subject  of  absolute  unbe- 
lief But  in  this  respect  the  idea  it  presents  is  perfectly 
correct,  that  so  far  as  hope  ivas  exercised  toward  the  future, 
it  connected  itself  altogether  with  the  condition  and  destiny 
of  the  soul ;  and  so  abhorrent  was  the  thought  of  a  resur- 
rection of  the  body  to  their  notions  of  future  good,  that 
TertuUian  did  not  hesitate  to  affirm  the  heresy  which  de- 
nied that  Cin-istian  doctrine  to  be  the  common  result  of  the 
whole  Gentile  philosophy. 

"It  was  precisely  the  reverse  with  believers  in  ancient 
and  primitive  times.  T/icir  prospects  of  a  blessed  immor- 
tality were  mainly  associated  with  the  resurrection  of  the 
body ;  and  the  dark  period  to  them  was  the  intermediate 
state  between  death  and  the  resurrection,  which  even  at  a 
comparatively  late  stage  in  their  history  presented  itself  to 
their  view  as  a  state  of  gloom,  silence,  and  forgetfulness. 
They  contemplated  man,  not  in  the  light  in  which  an  airy, 
speculative  philosophy  might  regard  him,  but  in  the  more 
natural  and  pi'oper  one  of  a  compound  being,  to  which  mat- 
ter as  essentially  belongs  as  spirit,  and  in  the  well-being 
of  which  there  must  unite  the  happy  condition  both  of 
soul  and  body.  Nay,  the  materials  from  which  they  had 
to  form  their  views  and  prospects  of  a  future  state  of 
being  pointed  most  directly  to  the  resurrection,  and  passed 
over  in  silence  the  period  intervening  between  that  and 
death.  Thus  the  primeval  promise,  that  the  seed  of  the 
•woman  should  bruise  the  head  of  the  serpent,  taught 
them  to  live  in  expectation  of  a  time  when  death  should 
be  swallowed  up  in  victory, —  for,  death  being  the  fruit  of 
the  serpent's  triumph,  what  else  could  his  complete  over- 
throw be  than  the  reversal  of  death  —  the  resurrection  from 
the  dead  ?  So  also  the  prophecy  embodied  in  the  emblems 
of  the  tree  of  life,  still  standing  in  the  midst  of  the  garden 
of  Eden,  Avith   its  way  of  approach   meanwhile  guarded  by 


408  THE    HOPE    OF    ISRAEL. 

the  flaming  sword,  and  possessed  by  the  cherubim  of  gloiy, 
—  implying,  that  Avhen  the  spoiler  should  be  himself  spoiled, 
and  the  way  of  life  should  again  be  laid  open  for  the  chil- 
dren of  promise,  they  shouldJiave  access  to  the  food  of  im- 
mortality, but  only,  of  course,  by  rising  out  of  death,  and 
entering  on  the  resurrection-state.  The  same  conclusion 
grew,  as  we  have  just  seen,  most  naturally,  and  we  may 
say  inevitably,  out  of  that  portion  of  the  promises  made  to 
the  fathers  of  the  Jewish  race,  which  assured  them  of  a 
personal  inheritance  in  the  land  of  Canaan, —  for,  dying  as 
they  did  without  having  obtained  any  inheritance  in  it,  how 
could  the  word  of  promise  be  verified  to  them,  but  by  their 
being  raised  from  the  dead  to  receive  what  it  warranted 
them  to  expect  ?  In  perfect  accordance  with  these  earlier 
intimations,  or  ground  promises,  as  they  may  be  called,  Ave 
find,  as  we  descend  the  stream  of  time,  and  listen  to  the 
more  express  utterances  of  prophecy  regarding  the  hopes 
of  the  chui'ch,  that  the  grand  point  on  which  they  are  all 
made  to  centre  is  the  resurrection  from  the  dead :  and  it  is 
so,  no  doubt,  for  the  reason,  that  as  death  is  from  the  first 
represented  as  the  wages  of  sin,  the  evil  preeminently  under 
which  humanity  groans,  so  the  abolition  of  death  by  mor- 
tality being  swallowed  up  of  life  is  understood  to  carry  in 
its  train  the  restitution  of  all  things." — Typology,  pp. 
267—273. 

Adopting  the  above  argument,  there  is  no  necessity  for 
supposing  that  the  locality  promised  is  typical  of  one  dif- 
ferently bounded,  although  a  like  promise  of  the  whole  re- 
newed earth  is  equally  good  to  all  the  saints.  And  thus,  for 
a  realization  of  the  promise  made  to  their  father  Abraham, 
the  resurrection  was  the  hope  of  Israel,  as  it  has  been  of 
saints  and  martyrs  under  the  Gospel  dispensation.  They 
died  without  receiving  the  promise  (Heb.  11:  40),  "God 
having  provided  some  better  thing  for  us,  that  they  without 
us  should  not  be  made  perfect."  They  died  in  expectation 
of  its  fulfilment,  —  looking  for  "a  better  resurrection." 
Theirs  was  the  hope  that  was  expressed  by  the  wife  of  John 
Calvin,  on  her  death-bed,  when  she  exclaimed  :  "0,  glorious 
resurrection  !  God  of  Abraham,  and  of  all  our  fathers ! 
not  one  of  the  faithful,  who  have  hoped  in  Thee  for  so  many 
ages,  has  been  disappointed  —  I  will  also  hope." 


DATE  DUE 

.>.uV  1  8 

JUN  1  5 

JUL  24 

ii\  !-\  i    A   ^,| 

"A'PR  1? 

\ 

DEMCO    38-297 

Div.S.       236.3        T533T  443459 


